Broken Faith
by Kur0Kishi
Summary: Betrayed by Konoha at the end and sealed into oblivion. Given a second chance at a childhood in a different world can Naruto rebuild his faith in humanity. A somewhat darker Naruto than most i've read on site, not dark emo, just dark. -First Naruto/Negima fic to reach Mundus Magicus and be considered complete. Sequel in progress-
1. Rain

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Mahou Negima Sensei is owned by Akamatsu Ken. **

Broken Faith

Betrayed by Konoha at the end and sealed into oblivion. Given a second chance at a childhood in a different world can Naruto rebuild his faith in humanity.

**Chapter 1 **

**Rain**

It was raining, a dreary day when the 4th Shinobi Great War ended. Much had to be sacrificed to bring the great Shinobi culture to its culmination on this dark day. An epic struggle against what was ultimately a disillusioned man.

A man that had lost faith in humanity their inability to maintain peace and in the end decided it was up to him. His goals at the beginning was to bring peace, but soon power had corrupted his ideals, somewhere along the way, keeping peace became ruling over humanity.

It really wasn't a bad idea, taking away mankind's will to fight because everything they did would be dictated by him alone if the Moon's Eye plan was successful . Him being god of mankind was a bonus, Madara justified to himself.

It was a choice, to have peace as a caged bird or whether it was to struggle, to crawl and to fight for peace with their own two hands.

Two epitomes of these ideals clashed at the Valley of the End.

The blonde haired victor stood over the broken body of Madara, the _Totsuka no Tsurugi _that Itachi had granted him for releasing Itachi from the tainted control of Kabuto clattered to the floor from his grip.

That sword alone was what gave him enough of an edge to pull a win out of his arse over Madara, rendering his space time abilities null long enough for Naruto to land a decisive hit.

Coughing blood out from his damaged body Naruto looked up into the raining sky, finally the fight was over, everything was over. He had ended the war, and his body ached all over.

"Raikiri!"

A hand covered in piercing electricity plunged into his chest and even more blood spilt out of his already past the limit body.

Naruto could only cough and hack blood, the hand of Kakashi alone was what held him up as trees started to grow around his legs.

"I'm sorry Naruto… the council gave orders that if you were to survive the fight, we had to take you out and report you as a casualty of war…"

Naruto coughed again, and laughed madly before looking at the silver haired man who had spoken.

"Bullshit. You've wanted to do this for a long time now isn't it?"

Kakashi's eyes widened.

"Wha? N-no I do-"

"Cut the crap. Ever since I killed Sasuke you've been dying to put your hand through my heart."

"Wha? Ho-how did you know?"

Naruto hacked more blood out and cackled again, drawing deep broken breaths into his damaged heart.

"I've always known, ever since I achieved the Sealed Hatred mode, I could always feel the festering hatred in Konoha," Naruto paused, smirking before closing his right eye and reopening them again, his cerulean blue eyes turned violet with rings around the pupil. "That and the Rinnegan grants me mild mind reading pow-" the blonde was cut off by another series of hard coughs, blood leaking out the side of his lips, mixing with the rain.

"Tch, then I don't have to hide this any longer, you deserve to die demon, Konoha, even the Sandaime wanted you kept ignorant, weak, pathetic. You weren't supposed to gain power, but we had no choice because Konoha had too many powerful enemies, especially after the Chuunin exams. You, the Kyuubi were our trump card. Why do you think Jiraiya only trained you after Sasuke left? Even then he only trained your Kyuubi powers. Had you stayed at that level of power, we wouldn't have come to this, but you used the Kage Bunshin jutsu and reached unimaginable heights. Now die demon."

Kakashi pulled out his blood soaked arm causing the blonde's screams of pain to rend the air, his torso falling forward, but the wood had already grown midway, preventing him from falling completely. Kakashi picked up the sacred sealing sword and laughed before thrusting the sword straight through the blonde's middle. "Your own sword, used to seal you permanently, how ironic."

"Arggggghhhhhhhh….." the scream petered out into pants.

"Enough Yamato, complete the sealing and than we can go celebrate."

As the wood started growing over Naruto's body which was stabbed to the tree with the sword, Kakashi turned around to leave.

"Ha…ha….Neh….Kakashi…. you want to know why I never betrayed the village even after I knew their plans?"

Kakashi stopped at that, dread forming in the pit of his stomach.

"Ha…. I never go back on my words, nor am I scum, according to the only thing you truly taught Team 7. So until Konoha kills me, I would have remained a loyal shinobi… but now….. you have killed Naruto Uzumaki….. I am released from all my promises…."

Naruto drew another rattling breath as he continued, "Now, with the last breath of a dying man, as the last jinchuriki in this God forsaken world, I curse you Kakashi, I curse Konoha and all its descendants, until the day they die, to wander around the Elemental Countries fighting to merely survive and wallow in guilt, fear and depression, and when you die Kakashi, I hope you have answers for my father in the stomach of the Shinigami. Consider this my middle finger to you and all who were involved. Djane….aho tachi."

"Booooom!"

Kakashi's single eye widened immediately and tuned back to the direction of Konoha. Even from the Valley of the End he could see a giant mushroom cloud where Konoha should have been.

A enraged cry leapt unbidden from the silver haired scarecrow's lips before he spun around and charged the blonde that was getting covered in wood but he was too late. All he saw was Naruto laughing madly even as he was swallowed up.

The blonde's last memory of freedom was a downcast rainy sky before everything went black.

All Kakashi could do was beat uselessly on the wood. A tree had already formed where Naruto's last stand was.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The war had depleted nearly 30% of Konoha's forces. Naruto's last act destroyed all main administration and government facilities. Nearly 60% of the remaining forces were killed by a multitude of exploding notes. There was one inside every warehouse, under every bed. The only ones that were spared was the Konoha 9 and their families.

Konoha would never recover. Those who once proudly called themselves people of Konoha never found peace, their descendants never found peace, they were hounded by all rival villages intent on taking advantage. Hounded like Konoha and Iwa once hounded the people of Uzugakure.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Thousands of Years later, the tree continued to grow to gargantuan levels due to the unnatural influx of energy at its base which was provided for by Naruto.**

**An academic city had sprung up with the tree as the central point, unknown to most because the potent energy of the tree provided a great nexus of leylines that made it easier to focus supernatural powers and was a potent place for magic users to gather.**

Two dark figures were currently in one of the empty computer classrooms of the school. The taller one was busy typing on the computer with the shorter one by her side as she watched her green haired companion easily hack the schools main security network. She couldn't help but admire the barriers ingenuity of using electricity as a source of its power, however that actually surprisingly worked in her favor because of Chachamaru being by her side.

"Well, that's that! Now we can finally execute our ultimate plan, right?" said Evangeline as the duo finally left after their plans to disrupt the barrier was set up.

"That is correct", said Chachamaru who actually did all the work.

"All right then. All will go as planned tonight! Hehe… when I think about the shocked look on the boy's face… Hehehehe…" said Evangeline.

Grinning the small blond vampire jumped up onto a higher part of the roof, laughing maniacally. She stopped for a moment and looked back at her servant. "Something you want to say Chachamaru?"

Chachamaru looked somewhat startled. "No… um… that is… I'm very sorry master!" The gynoid apologized. "Negi-sensei has already made a provisional contract with a partner."

"What!" Evangeline said in shock. "Why didn't you tell me about this! Who's his partner!"

"… The partner is Asuna Kagurazaka. I… don't know why I didn't report this master. I'm sorry."

"Hmm. Well whatever!" Evangeline said. "It doesn't matter if he has a partner or not!

Cachamaru however disagreed, this was a major lapse in her programming, "Master, I'll accept any punishment deem necessary."

"That's alright, I'd be in trouble without your help tonight. Anyway, We have five hours before the operation starts. Let's go Chachamaru!"

Evangeline jumped into the air, only to smack her foot against an extrusion on the building.

"Ah, master…" Chachamaru said as Evangeline fell face first on the ground.

"Ow ow ow!" Evangeline complained as she sat up and rubbed her nose.

"Ah… master, your nose is bleeding." Chachamaru said, trying to calm down her master.

"Uguu! Humans can't even fly, this is so inconvenient!" Evangeline complained. "Grrr! This is all the Springfield families fault. Just wait! After tonight's plan, I won't have to wait for the full moon to get rid of Negi! Tonight I'm going to drain his blood and lift the curse!" Evangeline stood up as she continued her rant. "The queen of the night who bears the "Gospel of Darkness" is going to roam the town tonight!"

"Master, your nose is still bleeding…"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**On a bridge later that night**

2 mages stood fighting each other while their partners were… having a forehead flicking match at the side.

The short male mage was desperately chanting, trying to match up against his opponent with his strongest spell, "_Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister….veniant spiritus aerialus fulgurientes…cum fulgurationi flet tempestas austrina"_

Similarly his opponent, an equally short blonde haired girl was also chanting, but she was light hearted, confident in her own power, "_Lic Lac la Lac Lilac…veniant spiritus glaciales obscurantes…cum obscurationi flet tempestas nivalis"_

Together at the same time, both mages roared out their strongest spells.

"_JOVIS TEMPESTAS FULGURIENTES!__**"**_

Clashed against the "_NIVAS TEMPESTAS OBSCURIANTES!"_

As the two large beams collided, the blonde haired mage smirked in victory, her spell was overpowering that of the red haired mage easily.

The latent magical powers in the air caused it to start raining.

Negi however was unwilling to give up. He refused to run away, to be scared like he was when he first fought Evangeline, like when the demons attacked his village. Bringing both hands up he roared his defiance and pushed everything he could, the amount of awesome power he poured into his spell started to overload his magical focus, the novice wand he was using.

At the same time, Evangeline who had been smirking was suddenly distracted by a flare of great power and the feeling of something breaking open.

That combined with the sudden increase in power of the child mage in front of her distracted her enough that Negi was able to overpower her spell.

The attack washed over Evangeline, crashing into her and creating a large cloud of dust along with a great explosion. Chachamaru and Asuna waited outside the range of the explosion breathlessly, anxious about the condition of their respective partners and completely soaked.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Everything was pitch black, his mind was fuzzy and his body ached. Badly. Subconsciously he could feel presences that were not his own outside the darkness, heck, this was the first time in a long time he actually felt anything other than pain. The first time the barrier to the outside weakened to the point where he could feel something and was cognizant enough to take advantage of it.

He subconsciously struggled, clawing, fighting his way to the light because it was human to do so. Anything was better than the dark he had been stuck in for so long, pushing his power outwards, smashing against the already weakened barrier.

Unknown to him, the barrier erected by Nagi, the Thousand Master to hold Evangeline, as well as the many barriers erected over time after his imprisonment, overlapped with that of his own, and they were all modified to run on electricity so that seals would not conflict with each other.

Every time there was a blackout, the newer seals drew energy from the previous seals, altogether wearing down the original seal that kept Naruto imprisoned. The current blackout weakened it even further, and the clashing of magical energies disturbed the sleeping being enough for him to stir, to fight and weaken the seal even more.

His energies formed ironically into a drill and clashed again and again with the seal.

The energy finally prevailed and exploded forth, a single hand burst out of the soil... and took a good grip and pulled the rest of the body out of the dirt... the energy made by the explosion was dampened by the rain and hidden by the thunder that suddenly struck a certain vampire and the magical clash that was currently ongoing on a nearby bridge... but alerted some of the other more... spiritually and magically sensitive people.

There stood a swaying young man wearing a headband with a leaf insignia on his head...

His clothes and cloak were ragged and caked in dirt, a great Tsurugi, a double sided sword stabbed clean through the middle of his body.

He looked up into the cloud laden raining sky and laughed with a raspy laugh.

He spoke two simple words…

"I..live…." as he toppled forward, a man with rugged stubble and half burnt cigarette stopped his forward momentum.

Outwardly Takamichi was calm but inwardly he cringed at the greatsword that was impaled upon the boy in his arms and the great amount of blood on the boy's body, although there weren't any injuries that were visible to his eyes.

He and the dean had been awake, monitoring the fight between Negi and Evangeline from the dean's office when they felt the sudden flaring of an unrecognizable power from the Great Tree, a short look between the two men was all the confirmation Takamichi needed before he sped to the tree to discover the gruesome sight of a man climbing out of the dirt, not unlike some zombie movies he had seen before.

The sword in the chest only served to reinforce the image.

Suddenly all around him a few other teachers appeared, mouth gaping at the sight of Takamichi supporting a….boy….?

'_How could the boy still be alive with that thing stuck in him'_, was a recurring thought among all the teachers present.

"Who the heck is this boy? Why was he buried alive under there! Take him to the infirmary!" Takamichi ordered while some of the other teacher's looked around to cover the traces of the explosion and the aftermath.

"Poor kid" a female teacher with blonde hair and a katana at her side said as she looked at the malnourished and mangled body of the young blond boy.

"Takahata-san… do we remove that sword? We can't let him rest with that thing stuck in him…." Random Teacher No. 2 said.

Grimacing at the truth in those words, Takahata nodded before grasping the handle of the sword and slowly pulling out the blade. It was gruesome, watching the sword slowly being dislodged from the blonde haired boy's chest cavity, along with the sounds of bone and metal crunching.

When the sword was finally removed they could see a hole clear through the boy.

"Kami, hurry and patch him up before getting him to the ICU, with a wound of that degree we don't know if he can even survive the night."

Unnoticed to all there, the bleeding blonde opened his eyes, disturbed by the amount of movement around him but lacked the energy to move his eyes.

All he could see with blurry vision was a clearing sky as the rain stopped and the clouds cleared.

They rushed him to the local hospital and immediately sewed the wound close and hooked him up to a drip and monitors, everything they could do, they did… now whether he survived or not was up to the unknown boy… and if he survived all he needed now was some rest... months, maybe years. Who knows?

But the person in bed was Uzumaki fucking Naruto... he defied logic and natural laws... and as sure as ramen cooks in 3 minutes he was healing already thanks to the IV, his body was absorbing the nutrients and using his own power to heal himself at a rapid state.

Meanwhile, 4 tired people were oblivious to the happenings near the Great Tree and trudged home. The vampire had already forgotten the sudden flare of power in the midst of the battle due to her loss.

"Ehehe…well I guess this really is my victory" said Negi happily "So you have to stop doing bad things from now on and start attending classes."

"Fine!", Evangeline growled", It's true I owe a debt for today".

"Alright!", Negi cheered, suddenly writing something in the class roster", I'm writing "I won" in the class roster!".

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THAT FOR!", Evangeline growled with an angry blush once more coming to her face, "IF THE BLACKOUT DIDN'T SUDDENLY END I WOULD'VE WON!"

The partners of the two mages simply stood by swear dropping at their master's antics.

"Uh… so you think they made up?" Asuna tentatively asked the gynoid beside her.

"….Who knows?" the reply was even but the amusement was obvious.

"Ah….heheheh….

Thus they continued on unaware of the ruckus awaiting them soon.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

2 dark silhouettes were sitting on some branches of the World Tree, obscured by leafs and shadows alike, they were ruminating on events that had just happened.

The silence was finally broken by the taller shadow, "So? What do you think is going to happen now?"

"…if the boy survives which is pretty unlikely judging by the wound in his chest…. He will most likely stay in Mahora. I don't see the dean letting such a potent source of energy go without a fight or at least some kind of benefit."

The taller shadow only hummed her agreement before smirking, "so? We all saw the fight between Negi-sensei and Evangeline-san. What do you think?"

The smaller one only shook her head, "Evangeline-san was playing around and let her confidence go to her head, Negi has potential. A lot of wasted and unnecessary movements and a childish attitude, but his only 10, so I don't think I should count those against him. At the moment, the only thing going for him is his large magical reserves and spell repertoire. Why didn't you help Negi, Mana?"

The taller shadows identified as Mana shrugged, "I wasn't paid to, just to stop intruders from entering the campus. What about you Setsuna? If Negi or Asuna died, your ojou-sama would've been heartbroken."

"It wasn't necessary, I noticed at least 5 teachers and 3 senior students watching the fight."

"Heh, practical as ever."

"Hm.."

With that discussion over, both shadows leapt from their posts and went back to bed.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Urgh…. What did I do to make Sakura angry?"

Naruto Uzumaki was awake.

**a.n. **

Do note, this is about a harem manga, so despite me not liking harems because I feel that it disrespects the female race (if you cant devote your balls to one girl what makes you think you deserve the female to devote herself to you?) so I'll allow for a few girls, of course I wont go overboard and throw Naruto in with 15 girls or some ridiculous shit like that. At most 7? I dunno, no clue yet. Also, I wrote this because recently I started reading some Naruto negima crossovers, however don't expect me to update this fic anywhere near regularly because I honestly have never read the negima manga before, all I wrote is from memory and slight research. I'll have to read the manga before I go any further. Or furtherer at any rate.

My Naruto fairy tail is currently 60% done in the current chapter, while my Naruto Rosario is about 50%. Honestly, both chapters are fillers so I'm forcing myself to write which isn't really good. No inspiration until I reach the good parts which I have already pumped out…. T^T


	2. Aim for the Stars

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Mahou Negima Sensei is owned by Akamatsu Ken. **

**Broken Faith**

**Betrayed by Konoha at the end and sealed into oblivion. Given a second chance at a childhood in a different world can Naruto rebuild his faith in humanity.**

**Chapter 2**

**Aim for the Stars**

**One week after the fight with Evangeline, 1 week before Kyoto.**

"Guhh….What did I do to make Sakura so angry…..?" A blond man stirred on the hospital bed, lifting one hand to rub his temple. His entire body was sore and in pain.

Instinctively a flash of memory of his last moments, rain, blinding pain and the hatred in Kakashi's eyes came to the blonde and he tried to sit up only to groan as all his muscles protested the movements.

A pained gasp left his lips and alerted the only person in the room with him. A busty woman with sea green hair immediately came to his side and pushed him back down.

"Stop, you must not move! Your body is suffering from extreme muscle atrophy and abuse."

"Wa…water…."

The nurse quickly poured a cup of water from a pitcher on his bedside before tilting it to his lips and Naruto drank greedily, feeling the soothing coolness of water flow in his body until he felt well enough to prop himself up on the wall beside his bed.

Shizuna Minamoto was not a normal teacher, qualified as a doctor from the get go and her awareness of the magical ongoings in Mahora Academy made her the go to person when something inevitably went wrong on a campus filled with hormonal teenagers with access to magic, magical or otherwise. But this was the first time she saw someone recover from extreme muscle atrophy, internal bleeding, torn muscles, cracked and fractured skeletal structure in less time than it took for her favorite women's magazine to reach Mahora. In fact, if she didn't know any better, she'd swear she could see his muscles repairing themselves in front of her very eyes right now, from a gaunt, thin person that dug himself from under the World tree, his muscles literally filled out to what seemed like peak efficiency to her. His fast healing when he was unconscious seemed to have been kick started when he awoke and was now bordering on regeneration; it was frankly baffling and very intriguing.

The best part? None of her sensors and diagnoses showed him to be magical in the very least.

Even now she watched fascinated as the man who was propped on the wall with one hand covering his sensitive eyes from the noon light slowly regained pallor and muscle tone showing him to be a tall young man, about 17 going on 20, about 6 feet tall, light stubble on his chin, high cheekbones that were better than earlier but still looked unhealthy, blonde hair spilled onto the bed.

This was so far out of left field she could barely pull herself to move to the door and signal for a small lavender haired girl named Ako to call for Takahata and the dean and to bring some food and water.

The young blonde man seemed to have orientated himself, and was looking around with interest, his earlier unseen crystal blue eyes were now bright and curious if abit strained from fatigue. All in all, he looked like any normal 18 year guy would if a bit underfed.

She moved forward to sit on a stool by his bed and opened her mouth to start the ball rolling, her movements apparently got his attention because his body tensed and those piercing eyes immediately locked on to hers. Shizuna immediately held her hands up in the universal sign for surrender to calm her patient down, "Do you remember your name?"

The man tensed for a moment, confusion registering in his eyes before he spoke, "Naruto, Naruto Namikaze….. whe..where is…this?", punctuating his question with a wave of his hand to show the whole infirmary.

Shizuna wasn't surprised. His words while straightforward Japanese were also an old, very old dialect of Japanese but enough to be understandable. She gave him a small smile, hoping to calm his down before the inevitable freak out when he found out where or exactly when this was. "My name is Shizuna Minamoto, I'm a doctor here at Mahora Academy."

"Doctor?" it seemed the word didn't translate over properly.

"A healer, that treats your injuries."

"Ah…"

"So…this…Academy," he seemed to grimace, "Thi..this is a school?"

"An all girls school."

Going by the slight nosebleed and the widening of his eyes, she'd bet her bra that definitely got through the language barrier.

Naruto was trying to repress his pervert instincts, an all kunoichi academy, that was new. All kunoichi had something in common, they were hot. Still that wasn't the problem at the moment, his memories were fuzzy, his body still hurt, the lady in front of him spoke weirdly and whoa….those eyebrows were big…..

The eyebrows in question belonged to Konoemon Konoe, Dean, of Mahora Academy and venerable director of the Kantou Magic Association who had just walked into the infirmary with Takahata sensei by his side.

His eyes, although not visible were focused intensely on the man sitting on the bed, propped on the wall. He was a powerful mage, and if there was one thing about magic, it was that anybody that used magic could always sense magic being used nearby, and this man in front of him, he couldn't sense a speck of magic in his body but miraculously managed to heal from his laundry list of wounds naturally. That of course piqued his interest and wariness. No normal person went from skeletal with a sword thicker than his forearm stabbed through the chest to normal if underfed in a week.

Then again, if he was deemed dangerous enough to be buried under the world tree, and survive said burial, there probably wasn't anything remotely normal with the young man in front of them.

"You look troubled, young man."

Naruto just deadpanned at the old man with the big eye brows.

"My body hurts and I'm sore, I'm hungry and thirsty, my head hurts and I can barely remember jack shit and I have people that talk weirdly asking me weird questions, you tell me if I'm NOT supposed to be troubled."

"Ohohoho, does it feel better getting that off your chest, young man?"

Naruto just chuckled, he felt the same old man aura from this guy that he had felt from the Sandaime, that alone left him relaxed enough to banter like that.

"Yeah, so what's the deal? Why are you guys talking weirdly, and where am I? Where is Konoha?"

"Hold on boy, I'm old and nearly deaf, and you talk weirdly to US. I don't know where you come from or where or what Konoha is, but I can tell you that you are in Mahora Academy, a special all girls' school in Japan. We found you digging yourself out from underneath that tree you can see from here"

The blonde went wide eyed before turning to look out the window so fast those present heard his neck creaking, the blonde just gaped at the huge tree .

Takahata just watched amused from the background at the blonde's reaction while Shizuna fidgeted, the man was probably under huge emotional strain at the moment.

Luckily the tense silence was broken by the clattering of plates as Ako brought the food on a tray.

Clearing his throat, the dean continued, "I can see you are still confused, have a meal and gather your thoughts before resting, I'll see you tomorrow and then we decide what to do you eh?"

Silently nodding, Naruto only nodded before eating slowly, while the others left him for now. Unbeknownst to the rest, Naruto's gander at the tree had reminded himself that before everything went black, he was being sealed in a tree by Yamato.

And that, jump started his memories.

Memories he didn't know whether he was better of with or without.

Memories of Konoha, of Akatsuki, of Tsunade dying with a smile on her face, of Kyuubi, of Sasuke, of Kakashi and lastly rain.

He never got to sleep till it was almost dawn.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The blonde sat in front of the dean after having a big breakfast, stoic and subdued but serious, a far cry from the sarcastic banter Konoe had seen yesterday.

"I assume you remembered most if not all of your past?"

The blonde just snorted and slumped into his seat. Looking around, he asked the dean, "I have quite the insane story if what I think is right. You trust the goatie guy and Shizuna san enough to hear this?"

Konoe pondered this for a while, Takahata was his right hand man in all but name, and everyone present was magically aware. Nodding he replied, "I trust them both with my life, but before I continue can I cast a spell on you so that we can understand each other better?"

"Spell? Whats that?"

Whether the word didn't translate properly or the blonde didn't get it for another reason, Konoe would never know, but hey, details, details…. "I can do something to help you understand what we're saying temporarily, will you allow me to do it to you?"

Warily nodding, the blonde tensed as the hairy jiji in front of him waved a stick with a star on the end and muttered some weird words before pointing it at him. he felt tingly all over before the old man nodded with satisfaction.

"That should help you understand us better, there wasn't anything wrong with the way you spoke, but it's an older dialect of our common language and that made it hard to communicate."

The blonde's face cleared and he nodded and grimaced; there wasn't anything to lose and he really didn't care about his past anymore, he didn't want all the angst that people seemed to attribute to his past, before going stoic once again.

"I came from the Elemental countries, the major countries were named according to the main elements, Fire, thunder, water, wind and earth. Each country had its own Shinobi village, a place where shinobi or ninja gathered. I came from Konohagakure, Village Hidden in the leaf, of Fire country." Naruto looked around to see if the three were following.

"As far as I could tell, the population of the Elemental countries were divided into Shinobis, Civillians and Samurais. Shinobi basically worked as the mainstream protection for their own country, doing a variety of jobs, capable of inhuman physical feats, even controlling the elements with what we called Jutsu."

That was the sticking point, he didn't know if they would accept this or if they would call him mad, cause if his theory wasn't wrong then he was in a different time from the one he had known and he needed this people to believe him to help him. Grimacing he looked around again and was surprised to see acceptance in their expressions. Now that was over, he didn't care what else happened and continued speaking in monotone, reminiscing of a bitter past.

**Flashback**

I was born October the tenth, I forget what year is it now, my birthday has bad connotations for me. The day I was born, the village was attacked by a supernatural being, what we called Bijuus, there are nine of them, and we were attacked by the strongest, safe to say, there was a lot of collateral damage and the village only survived because the village leader used a sacrificial jutsu to seal the being into an infant. That infant was me. The village leader's wife died in the process.

Over the next 12 years, the infant would grow, but be belittled, abused, ignored and even occasionally beaten; and so he desperately sought attention by doing anything. Even going so far as to dress in loud orange clothes and prank those that had harmed him mercilessly. Anything that would give him respect and attention he would do, and thus the ideal to become the village leader was born because no one else got more respect than the village leader and because no one was stronger than the village leader.

But in his naivete, while he loudly proclaimed his dream of being the leader, he never understood the meaning of the title, Hokage, the village leader, as long as he was respected it was enough. But by the time he made that resolution, he was so stuck in his need for attention that he continued his loud and attention seeking ways. To the point where he handicapped himself, forgoing his training and education to prank people, to shout loudly, to be brash and stand out. Not willing to sacrifice and truly make a proper effort to be the Hokage. Although, despite all that it was not entirely his fault, it should be known that his work ethic was truly good, he just didn't know WHICH direction to pour his efforts into and no one actively helped and many more actively hindered. No one showed him how to properly train causing him to lose enthusiasm for the more tedious aspects of training.

At the age of 12, the standard age, the boy was accepted as a ninja due to a fluke even then, too set in his ways, the boy never understood what it meant to be ninja, wanting to standout and gain attention. Suffice to say, reality didn't set in till he was 16.

You see, when ninjas are accepted into the system, they are sorted into a team of 3 with one commander. The boy was sorted into team 7, and there he met his first 'friend' or the first person to acknowledge his existence, Sasuke Uchiha, and his till then lifelong crush. Looking back now, the boy was so desperate for attention, going so far to see acceptance where there was none, and he called team 7 his friends even if it was just acknowledgement.

But that was beside the point, the first person that acknowledged him turned traitor to his village for power and he set out to do anything he could under the delusion that once Sasuke came back, everything would go back to being normal and he would prove himself worthy of his crush's love and so he trained under a powerful shinobi for 3 years. Even then his habits of wanting to stand out had not changed and he achieved less then he was supposed to, stunting his own abilities and generally being brash, ignorant, reckless and stupid on the battlefield.

Along the way, the boy even if he was a less than stellar shinobi, received the grudging respect and a working relationship with the being sealed inside of him, in time, the boy came to know the being as the sole existence that had never lied to him….even if she was a bit manipulative…..

At the same time, he also found out that there was a group of people seeking to harvest the nine great beings for their own purposes, namely world domination cum world peace. Unfortunately should the beings be harvested from their respective containers it would result in inevitable death for their containers, to compound matters his friend after 3 years, betrayed his own teacher and started actively helping that organization for his own purposes.

Ultimately war broke out when the boy turned 15 and returned to his village after 3 years of training, when there was only 2 of the great beings left uncaptured. The Fourth Great Shinobi War lasted approximately one year.

In one particular skirmish, the boy's naivete was broken with the ultimate sacrifice.

While he left everyone else under the impression that he and his prisoner could not work together, mostly due to the stigma of being a jinchuriki, a human sacrifice, the fact that he had been ashamed of that fact caused him even more shame and regret now.

Him and the being were actually great partners and respected each other's strengths, him for his creativity on the battlefield with limited resources and skills, and her for her manipulativeness and long term goals. She left it unsaid that he was like a breath of fresh air in a world that smelt like blood, his determination and innocence, something someone as jaded as her had forgotten long lost in the millennia she had existed.

At the start of the shinobi war, he finally found out 16 years later than he should have who his parents were while training to control the full extent of his prisoner's power. Shortly afterwards he was still kept under house arrest but disgruntled by the lack of action and the need to prove himself had persuaded the great shinobi leaders to allow him to the frontlines with her help and word savvy, even if she didn't agree because she didn't think he had the gall to actually kill someone. He was too innocent.

That ultimately led to her downfall.

When he reached the frontlines and battled long hard, his overwhelming use of her power enabled him to turn the tide of war, pushing the enemy back from the brink of defeat, however the enemy commander, seeing that his forces were being isolated and taken out, one by one, had emerged in front of the boy with a knife at Sasuke's throat.

Sasuke's life in exchange for Konoha. He had told the masked man to go bang a wall then recklessly charged the man despite everyone's protests but before ordering the Shinobi army on his side to stand down and let it do this himself, that he had to save Sasuke with his own hands because of his promise to his former crush and his undying belief that Sasuke was good and that nothing could stop him because he had those precious to him. His pride cost him everything that day.

Sasuke and the enemy commander both turned on him and captured him.

He had seen the sneer on his former comrade's face as pain eveloped his body.

He was pathetic.

Together they wrenched the being from inside his body and the boy died. But as a last ditch effort she gave him her last gift as an act of defiance, every scrap of her power, but as a result, her soul would be forfeit to the statue it was sealed in, never having enough power to break out on her own unless he destroyed it, releasing 8 other beings of unlimited power in the process.

Condemn the world for one soul? Or not?

The boy died, and the man never expected to wake up again under the rain.

His village leader had sacrificed herself to bring him back to life, much like another had done before her for another jinchuriki.

From that day onwards, the man never stopped training and killing in war. His Rinnegan unlocked from death, an unknown requirement was that the user from his mother's clan with the genes had to die before it could be unlocked. He would never allow himself to be put in such a situation again.

A dojutsu with power of life and death, mind and matter, fitting that it could only be unlocked after staring death in the face and giving it the finger.

He never let anyone know though, it was a trump card, one fitting for a shinobi, not some idiot boy that had wanted to stand out like a fool and let the enemy take his head off.

His former crush had turned bitter, bitter because he was the reason her mother figure and her Sasuke was killed. That he was the reason for this damned war in the first place.

His teacher angry because he was the reason 3 Hokages had died, the third, the fourth and the fifth. His stupidity was the reason for so many deaths. If not a demon, then an ill omen to the village.

the cyclops conveniently forgot he as the boy's teacher was the one who was supposed to beat the stupidity out of the boy.

With Tsunade gone, he lost any links that would have held him down in Konoha, the memories were too bitter, especially since he could read minds now and had expected the betrayal from the start. Yet he never just quit and went to live his life as a hermit and tell the rest of the world to go to hell.

Why ?

The being once sealed inside him respected him for one reason, his undying determination to never back down or break his word, not his shinobi power, not his lineage, nothing else. Just his will.

Although in her words, "Never breaking promises is good, what is NOT good is WHO you make promises to and the fact you shoot them off like candy without thinking about the consequences, which usually results in ME needing to pull YOUR ass out of the fire."

And so, even if he was called anything else, he would never break his word or back down.

Before he had been ashamed to admit he and his prisoner got along, now, he wore his title with pride as a tribute, as repayment for being ashamed of her.

Call it pigheadedness or a prayer for forgiveness for everything she didn't deserve but accepted as her lot in life, but ever since then if he promised to bring down heaven then even if Kami forbid him would bring Heaven down crashing.

Nonetheless, from that day on though, he never made a promise again.

And so everything came to a head. Him, his sword and his body against the enemy commander after a grueling war that lasted one year.

He had won, but as expected the betrayal came and he was sealed on that rainy day. His death freeing him from his promises.

The tree had barely covered his near dead body and put him in a state of suspended animation as far as he could tell.

The seal corroded over time while his body continuously generated power equivalent to the being that had been previously sealed within him was absorbed by the tree as it was meant to keep him too weak to break out.

And thus here he was.

Alive.

Alone.

**Flash back end.**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

the office was quiet as the 3 teachers digested the story that had been laid at their feet.

Even as the blonde man with waist length hair told his story in a monotone with a stoic expression, eyes glazed watching the sky outside, the tears that flowed down his cheeks showed that he wasn't totally unaffected by his mistakes.

That alone told them there wasn't an ounce of lie in his words. Although it was evident much had been skipped over.

Konoe sighed, watching this boy tell his story made him feel eons older then he was, humanity's stupidity regarding what they didn't understand was astounding in its capacity for cruelty. The fact that the magical world was kept isolated from the rest of the world was proof enough.

As much as the blonde's broken faith in humanity was justified it made him feel that as one of the older generations it was his fault for not doing better. Even if he wasnt even born at the time considering the geography had changed drastically from the man's tale, it was evident that the mistakes of the older generation burdened the new no matter how well intentioned.

The need to keep secrets from the man in front of him, and the deliberate antagonism caused him to seek attention of any kind, once given acknowledgement, he hung on to it like a starving dog on a bone, eventually blossoming into the fact that he deluded himself into believing this Sasuke person was redeemable and that event….. eventually brought him here to this place today.

Konoka had no clue whatsoever about her huge magical reserves, plus the fact that she was bound to receive antagonism sooner or later by those that wanted her power made the comparison between the man in front of him and his granddaughter even more eerie, the fact that the Kyoto trip was in one week only made his task heavier.

In fact the parallels between him and his granddaughter was so obvious that he couldn't help but wonder in 50 years would he see the same jaded, dull look in her eyes and he couldn't help but flinch and sigh tiredly.

Was this some sign from Kami telling him that he and his son were going to be made into fools?

No… if Kami was indeed giving him a sign, then the man in front of him had a purpose for being here today, probably to prevent something similar from happening, and he intended on taking full advantage of it. Plus there was one big difference, despite the secrets kept from her; Konoka was essentially a very happy child that lacked for nothing.

As far as he could tell…

Looking up he saw the understanding on Takahata's face and the tears that Shizuna was obviously repressing if her red eyes were any indication.

Konoe steepled his fingers under the shin and pinned the stoic man with a stare who returned who returned it unflinchingly.

"By now….you have already guessed from the size of the tree, your era has ended hundreds of not thousands of years ago. You are essentially adrift. With no support, no knowledge, no currency, you can't speak today's language fluently yet, so the question is….. what do you plan to do now?"

The blonde just shrugged, "As I am at the moment, I only have my shinobi skills, I am only good at fighting and information gathering to a certain extent, even than I'm pretty rusty. I have no purpose. If you threw me out, I'd have to go out on the streets and find job before slowly fitting in."

Konoe was quiet, the blonde lacked any skills or even credentials that would be passable in today's modern society. Despite the blonde's mature looks, Konoe couldn't instate him as a teacher, or even assistant teacher, the idea, was frankly stupid, he'd just be freeloading in class and he couldn't teach what he didn't know. However, the fighting part peaked his interest.

It wouldn't be the first time what he had in mind happened, but it was rare. Not to mention, it would give the blonde time to settle in and learn the basics of living in a modern environment as well as start a curriculum vitae from start here in Mahora.

"Naruto-kun, how old are you?"

"Uh….16 plus 10000 give or take a few thousand?"

Konoe got serious.

"Your body has probably matured at a far slower pace in the tree, so despite you thinking that your 16, you are probably closer to 20. Nonetheless, I can instate you as a student of this Academy. This will give you a chance to experience a childhood you probably should have in the first place, as well as give you time to learn how to adjust and fit into modern society and earn your way through and create your own credentials like a high school certificate. Here, power isn't the answer to everything and you can't just fight what you think is unfair."

Here Konoe took a breath, "considering your age, I would have put you in the high school section immediately, but I'll be completely honest. I have a granddaughter. She has great magical strength,"

"Wait what? Magical? What does that mean? Is that like chakra?"

Konoe took a deep breath and explained the basics of magic, of the separated societies and the underlying implications of mixing the modern population and the magical population and since he wasn't exactly human, he wouldn't be turned into an ermine.

"And so, my granddaughter, Konoka, has extraordinarily great magical reserves, but her parents want her to have a normal childhood so we have kept it a secret from her. I am glad to say that we have at least succeeded where your grandfather figure failed in this part and have at least provided her with a happy childhood, but in return, she is ignorant of the fact that many may try to abuse her powers as her powers bloom.

Aside from her, we also incidentally have many magical students in this academy due to the World Tree, but none as many as 3-A, under a magically powerful but young teacher named Negi Springfield. And here is where you come in, you know the harsh realities of life, so I want to put you in their class, to let you learn but at the same time be a bodyguard to that class, you will be compensated of course.

Despite them being younger than you, especially because many of them are…. accident prone… at the same time, I want you to watch from the shadows while acting like a normal student, to let them fight their own battles and grow on their own terms and so unless it becomes necessary, I would prefer if you do not reveal your skills except to a select few. Don't get me wrong, I have no intentions of chaining you to Mahora, if you decide one day you want to leave to expande your horizons, I'll have no conditions other than for someone like you to keep in touch with an old man."

Naruto just eyed the old man, "Your putting a lot of trust in me… you don't even know if I am a threat to your students or not, so why are you trusting me with this?"

The old man just grinned, "Sharp for a ninja eh? I'll lay it out straight. You and my granddaughter are so similar its almost scary, and I cannot bear the thought of failing her like your elders did to you but my hands are tied because my son wishes for her to stay ignorant of the hardship of the mage world."

"Aside from her, many of the children in that class is destined for something greater, especially Negi, but sometimes… that destiny may be heavy enough break their faith in the world but I don't them to sacrifice their innocence to fulfill that destiny. Your presence here is proof enough of that statement. The same innocence the being that was sealed in you acknowledged and was trampled over. You don't deserve to be so jaded Naruto….. at most I want you to enjoy some relaxation. I can't bring that innocence back but at least…. Let an old man atone for another old man's mistakes."

Konoe watched as the young man in front of him bowed his head in gratitude, his bright blonde bangs covered his eyes but he could see a hint of tears starting to fall, "You don't have to answer today, I can see you are emotional and overwhelmed from everything, so just rest for today, maybe even look around the campus. Then you can tell me of your decision tomorrow. Deal?"

"Yea..yeah, thanks Jiji."

The four sat in a moment of silence allowing their emotions to run their course before setting back into business.

"Neh, Jiji," Takahata snorted at this to lighten the tension, "were there any stuff that you found near me? I had a lot of emergency equipment in some scrolls I carried with me all the time…. And a pretty large sword? I think it was kinda … stuck in me. I wanna gather my stuff then just walk around a bit and look at the area."

Everyone present except Naruto grimaced at the reminder.

"Shizuna-sensei, could you take Naruto-kun to where all his equipment is stored? Tonight you can stay in the infirmary, tomorrow, we'll deal with your long term housing if you agree to my proposal."

Nodding the boy stood up before bowing in thanks.

"Before you go take this, its some currency for you to spend on yourself for today and some basic books on the lifestyle in Mahora. I originally got those for Negi assuming he couldn't fit in."

Slightly overwhelmed at the man's kindness he bowed again before motioning to the nurse which stood at the doorway, "Arigato, Konoe-san. Shizuna-sensei, if you please?"

The two men who were left behind sat quietly in contemplation, before Takahata spoke, "You sure this was the right way, Konoe-sama?"

Konoe breathed deeply, "What would you have done? Left him to fend for himself in a world he knows nothing about? At least this way, he has time to settle in, if he wants to leave in the future, I won't be happy but if it's his wish then I have no right to tie him down to an all girl's school. Someone like him won't accept charity and that's essentially what it would be if I gave him a fake educatorial role or hadn't made that bodyguard excuse up. Right now, what is most important to him who has lost everything, is to find a sense of purpose again, after that…..who knows?"

Takahata just hummed his agreement.

After Takahata left, the dean leaned back into his chair, intent on relaxing by reading about the….female anatomy…

After rummaging around in in his desk for awhile the dean frowned, "Funny…. I left that book right there this morning…where did it go?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

As they were walking down the hall to the infirmary Naruto decided to ask some questions.

"What exactly is it you do here Shizuna-sensei?"

The tall busty woman thought for a while before explaining. "On the surface, I am but a simple school nurse that deals with any minor injuries, on the other hand, being in a school with a high concentration of magical students, it was necessary to have a magical healer as well. Now healing spells are extremely rare and magical healers are hard to find but magical accidents are pretty common around here, so I'm mostly needed to calm the non magical students down and heal any injuries as well as erase their memories. Sometimes if there aren't any incidents I sub for any missing teachers as well."

"Erase their memories? Why is it necessary?"

Shizuna hummed for a moment wondering how to phrase it in a suitable way, "We strive to keep the magical and non magical world apart to avoid any conflict because compared to the non magicals, we are outnumbered by 100 to 1. So in extreme cases of exposure but the student cannot guarantee his or her secrecy, we have to erase the memory. I'm sure you know the prejudice humans heap on those that are different."

Naruto just nodded, "In that case, why bother to have normal students here? Why not just magical students, then you wouldn't be so stretched out between magical and physical injuries right?"

"Where would we go? Any tracts of land that suddenly went missing would be noticed immediately and we can't hide such a large population of magicals and maintain the quality of our resources at the same time. So its better just to hide in plain sight as they say. Anyway we're here, everything of yours we put in that cupboard. The sword is wrapped up inside as well, carrying it as it is would be too conspicuous." Shizuna stood by quietly as Naruto arranged all his equipment, grimacing at the condition of his equipment, she asked, "when we found you, your clothes were already half decayed but strangely that paper scroll you were carrying was perfectly fine. Do you have any spares or should I try and find you some?"

"Nah, its alright, the scrolls are imbued with my chakra, so they should have been fine in that state of suspended animation. Here, watch."

Naruto flipped open the scroll and spread it open in one fluid motion while biting his finger and swiping the blood on it across one particular cluster of symbols. Immediately a few sets of similar black clothes with orange accents appeared.

Shizuna frowned at the jumpsuits, he'd never fit in wearing that and so said as much, "After you have met the Headmaster tomorrow, I'll take you out to town. We need to get you a school uniform and some casual clothes, these jumpsuits won't fit in well your hair is very long as well, do you want it cut tomorrow?"

Naruto jumped behind a screen and quickly changed before coming out to reply, "Thanks for everything Shizuna-sensei…. I'll never be able to repay you for your kindness."

"Nonsense, i helped because you needed help not for a reward and considering your past history, would you have done anything less then I did?"

Naruto didn't answer. Mostly because she was right, but he still thanked her.

After dressing up in his jumpsuit he bowed to Shizuna again before jumping out the window, the sword attached diagonally on his back.

"Fufufu, what a polite boy."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Outside, Naruto winced, frowned and looked up at the window he had just left from. It wasn't that high, in fact he should have landed no problem but his muscles had ached pretty badly. This wouldn't do, the dean wanted him as a bodyguard, and a weak bodyguard couldn't do jack shit.

He needed a place to loosen up his body and get back into shape. He decided to ask about that tomorrow.

It was nearly evening and so there wasn't much to do, quietly strolling along the walkways in Mahora, Naruto couldn't help but contemplate if he was doing the right thing by staying here. Was there even a right or wrong in this situation? But if he didn't, where would he go? What would he leave for? He had no reason, he had no purpose.

Nonetheless, the dean gave him a place to stay until he found that purpose, and for that, he would always be grateful to the dean, like he had been with the Sandaime.

The thought of the Sandaime reminded him of Kakashi's words, but he felt that whether the third Hokage had secretly despised him or hindered his growth didn't matter anymore, he chose to remember the old man based on what he knew and what the old man did for him. And now he found someone that was equally as kind, Naruto vowed to do his best to fulfill the dean's expectations of him.

Going off the beaten path, Naruto jumped up into a tree that was on a hill, sitting on the branch, Naruto stilled his body and slipped into meditation. Everything had been going so fast this few days, so much information and he was frankly too much in shock to properly evaluate everything that happened.

He thought about everything he had left behind, and to be honest, he really couldn't find any regret about leaving it behind either. That part surprised him.

He thought about everything the dean had told him about magic and his new role for now, the dean had been right, he couldn't go off half cocked into the world, at best he'd just be another mercenary bringing more pain into the world and so was grateful for the chance to settle down and have a home base where he could always come back to if things didn't go right.

Calming down, Naruto breathed deeply and let his sage mode wash over his weary body, and allowed his senses to spread fully, being one with nature around him. From his perspective, it was like watching the night sky, everybody was an individual star, some big and some small, doing this always calmed him down and instilled a sense of peacefulness within him and allowed him to plan ahead more efficiently.

Breathing in the fresh evening air deeply, he smelt something wonderful from near him, attuning his Sage Mode senses to the direction of the smell he noticed a big cluster of stars and it seemed to be a shop of some sort. As if on cue, his stomach rumbled.

Chuckling to himself the blonde stood up and jumped down from the tree, his waist length hair flowing around him and annoying him. grumbling abit as he tied his hair into a pony tail he walked towards the shop he had sensed and saw a small lighted cart shop. One similar to the ramen shop in Konoha, and that brought many good memories of the Ramen couple that had took care of him for the longest time. Before he had left Konoha for the last battle, he had given them all his Namikaze inheritance and pleaded with them to leave Konoha.

The father and daughter combo had left Konoha in the middle of the night and he only hoped they had prospered somewhere where they were appreciated and taken care of.

Nonetheless, he took out the currency that the dean had given to him, he wasn't entirely sure how much he had but it was probably enough for one meal. The cart was surrounded by wooden tables and there many customers, the atmosphere was merry and satisfied, very much resembling the old ramen stand. Sitting down at the counter in a corner, he waited for the cheerful chubby chef to take his order while he soaked up the cheerful atmosphere.

The chef appeared to be helped by 2 other girls, one had tanned skin with pale blonde hair and was extremely energetic and cheerful. Her other helper was the exact opposite, tall, calm and elegant, light green hair with weird ear adornments. They were both wearing Chinese style clothes and an apron that declared what was obviously the cart's name, Chao Bao Zi.

When the slightly chubby girl came to take his orders he smiled and asked for 5 bowls of Miso ramen. Naïve or not ramen was always going to be his favourite food. The chef looked weirdly at him before asking, "Your new around here aren't you?"

Slightly stunned Naruto only nodded.

"Heh, you got a weird accent, that's why I could tell. Welcome to Chao Bao Zi, since its your first time, the first bowl is on the house."

Naruto smiled at the little chef and uttered his thanks, the chef spoke similar to old man Teuchi, the warmth and familiarity was obvious even with the dialect barrier. Maybe it was a trend among cooks?

He slowly savoured the noodles and broth even as he watched the going ons in his corner with a small smile on his face. It struck him that if he took the offer, this was what he would be protecting, this atmosphere among friends that transcended race, language, age and even gender.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the green haired waitress occasionally glancing at him but paid it no real mind.

Chachamaru was worried if her internal processors could be worried. The person in the corner registered like a searchlight on her radars, but her systems told her it wasn't magic. It also told her the signature matched the flare that she had noticed during the fight between Negi and her Master but significantly stronger than the one at the fight. It didn't help that her Master was on thin ice with the dean and so they were being cautious, a powerful stranger that had showed up from nowhere and watched the fight did not bode well to their future. Vampires were largely feared by the magical community, her Master even more so and it was not uncommon for random hunters to break into Mahora and attempt to kill her to get the bounty on her Master.

That was part of the reason her Master was given a place so far from the dorms and tasked to actively watch the grounds. Most of the intrusions had something to deal with her one way or another.

But the man in the corner didn't seem to be agitated or hiding anything like most hunters did, he just sat there in a corner, a wrapped bundle leaning on the wall beside him, elegant and poised, sipping his sake with a small smile. His blonde hair tied into a knot and pulled over his left shoulder so it pooled on his lap. If her optical sensors hadn't detected the broad shoulders and the toned muscles in a strictly tighter than necessary black top, her processors would've registered the person as some sort of noble lady.

When the clock chimed 6pm, the crowd started to clear, the next time she glanced for the blonde man she noticed him talking to Satsuki-san, passing her some currency and a bag of leftovers to the man. After that she was too busy cleaning up to pay the man anymore mind.

It was nearly 7pm when her customary routine at the shop was finally done, she turned and asked Satsuki for the usual leftovers for her to feed the cats in the alley.

Satsuki just gave a gentle smile at the gynoid and pressed the bag of leftovers into her hand gently. "There isn't much today, someone already asked and paid for some of it but you can have everything else."

Chachamaru was a very reserved person, and Satsuki had personally made it her goal to pull the gynoid out of her shell when she saw the stoic gynoid the first time 2 years ago. Most would call her stupid for acting this way to a roboy but she couldn't help but feel the gynoid could be more. The first time Satsuki saw any sign of humanity was when she saw the green haired gynoid feeding the stray cats in the alleys with a gentle smile on her face about a month ago and it was something that had only started recently after 1 year of efforts and Satsuki would do anything to see the girl blossom.

Her goal was to make everyone happy after all.

Chachamaru bowed and slowly strode out, enjoying the evening air, to the alley where she usually met her furry friends and when she turned the corner she was very surprised to see the blonde from earlier.

Even more surprising was that the blonde was sitting on the dirt, his back propped against the wall, a group of cats eating not far from him, in his lap was 2 kittens playing with his hair. She watched him tease the small kittens with a gentle smile on his face, and as he played with them so gently, her internal processors started to heat up and the motors in her spun faster and faster.

Cocking her head in puzzlement she conducted a diagnosis scan on herself, this anomaly had never happened before…. If she had contracted a virus or a program had gone haywire she would have to tell her creator but there was no sign of anything wrong.

Slowly she stepped forward, not wanting to disturb the man and the cats, she knelt down beside the feeding cats and poured her own portion of leftovers and petted a few of the cats. One of her personal favourites, a small white cat with black socks nuzzled her leg.

Looking at the man opposite her she decided to do the same and sat with her knees folded, taking the white tabby onto her lap and stroked its fur.

They sat in companionable silence, not bothering to acknowledge each other, nothing needed to be said.

She didn't know how long they sat there in silence, playing with the cats, but all too soon it was nearly 9pm and her Master expected her back home. Already she was later than usual. Far later. She wondered what caused this deviation from her programming and what the heat that turned up every once in awhile she watched the man play with the kittens was.

Getting up, she gave a bow of acknowledgement to the man and left, not seeing the small smile and bow of the head that he returned.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto sat on the infirmary bed, pulling out all the books he had sealed into the scroll that the dean had given to him earlier this evening. As he did this menial task he let his mind wander to construct a to-do list. First on the list was the read all the books in front of him so he could find a source of income. He couldn't live on the dean's charity, the amount of currency from earlier was the most he would take and even then he would repay it with interest.

As he looked over the books, he noticed a bright cover sticking from between the covers of a Japanese language textbook. Pulling it out, his jaw dropped. He could run all he liked, but even if he ran to the future like now it was apparent some things never changed. Namely perverts.

He cried anime tears, what was with him and all the perverts always gathering around him? he just wanted a pure and innocent life, was it too hard to ask for? Why Kami? Why?

Still…it provided him with an easy avenue for money….. as much as he loathed to do so….

Flood the modern world with high level smut and get easy money or be poor and live off charity….. right…. World breaking decision.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Konoe looked at the young man in front of him, he looked slightly peaked and tired, worriedly he asked if there was anything wrong.

Naruto just waved him off saying he had come to a world changing decision last night, the dean just assumed he had been debating about the job offer. "So? Have you decided on the offer?"

Naruto looked at him for a moment than nodded but held up a hand to stop Konoe from going any further, "At the moment, my body is pretty weak, barely a quarter of my original capabilities and my chakra has yet to be properly filled, only a third of what was available. Whenever I regenerate any, some always flows out of my body almost by default to the World Tree and strangely enough, my sword. So I wanted to warn you to be sure you are confident I can do this even without my full abilities which are doubtful to return within the month."

"That… is indeed troublesome. While for the long term there shouldn't be too much of a problem, I wanted you to be ready for the Kyoto trip in four days and would feel better if you were up to full strength by then."

'_Although, if what I'm feeling now is barely a third of your reserves you are probably one of the most powerful people to ever walk this earth. At the moment, the size is already on par with Takahata. At first I couldn't detect anything, but once I was accustomed to his type of magic it was easy to sense how much he had.'_

Naruto quietly awaited the dean's decision, his stoic mission face back in place as he watched the old man rub the bridge of his nose, seeming contemplating something. When the old man spoke again, he snapped back to attention.

"Naruto, mages cast their spells by chanting. Some of these chants take very long and its very easy for their opponents to disrupt the spell, causing to start over again. Many enemies can take advantage of this weakness."

Naruto just looked confused at why the dean was already saying something he knew.

"Fortunately, there is usually a few ways to counter that weakness. Some mages increase their physical capabilities to battle on an even tilt with their opponents, but the more common method is seeking for help. Eastern mages use something called Goki which usually defend the enemy and Zenki whom attack and distract their opponents, giving them time to chant.

Western mages on the other hand, share their magic with their partners. The magic they share bolsters their partner's abilities and provides them with a magical artifact according to an aspect of their personality and natural ability to increase their combat capabilities, so say we have a powerful person, the artifact would also be naturally powerful. Considering you have massive reserves and above par physical stats, it would be safe to say any artifact you might get won't be weak by any stretch of the word. But enough semantics, here is what I am offering you, I'll make a contact with you, offering you a pactio to enhance your combat abilities. With one condition, whatever artifact you get, you must not abuse it."

"Generally a partner's loyalty is to their contractor and their primary duty is to guard his or her contractor, but seeing as I'm just sitting here, I won't really need your help but if I do need it, you'll help wont you?"

Naruto went slack jawed, the dean would go so far for him? When he didn't have to? He could only nod in thanks.

"A pactio, or contract between mage the Magister Magi, and his partner, the Minister Magi is usually sealed with a kiss," here Naruto blanched and scooted backwards, his hands clutching his butt, "but a blood pact and a handshake works just as well."

Konoemon established the magic circle and they both stepped in. Konoemon used an athame to cut his hand while Naruto used a kunai and when they shook hands there was a flash of bright light that blinded Naruto.

When everything settled, Naruto blinked his eyes a few times experimentally and saw Konoemon holding something, no, two cards in his hands. When the dean noticed Naruto was back to normal, he handed one card to Naruto, "That card is proof of the contract, it's a copy of the original I have here and they will allow communications between us as well as let you independently activate your powers without needing me to be there. When you need it, just say _Adeat."_

"Yes sir!"

"Although I find your card very…. Interesting and unique. Based on the card, you are either primarily a close combat fighter that has no long range skills whatsoever, or someone that prefers long range only am I right? So which are you?"

Naruto was surprised the dean would know so much by just looking at his card. "Close to middle range combat specialist, I completely lack any ranged techniques."

"hmm… I see, you see that metal thing in the picture? I doubt you know what it is but its called a Sniper Rifle, made for high powered penetration single shots from long distances, up to 1 kilometre away. The scope enables you to sight your target easier. I'm not sure if it can stand up to hits in melee combat but it gives you the option of high powered long range combat."

Naruto looked at his card curiously. It depicted the roman numeral for Nine, how fitting, in the top right corner was the word _Caerulum. _In the middle was a picture of him wearing a black suit and a red trenchcoat with metal buckles, buckled up to his waist with the rest flowing behind him. in the picture, he was holding what looked like a large but slim metal contraption that was as long as he was tall, the butt of the weapon was on the ground with his right hand resting atop the the barrel, his left hand holding a white blank mask to his face. Underneath his picture were the words

_Namicaze Naruto, _

_Astra Petas, _

_virtue : Audacia, _

_Directio : Occidens,_

At the bottom left of the card were the words _Astralitas : Caelum Sideralis._

Konoe let him inspect the card for a bit longer before he spoke, "After this, I'll bring you to Negi since he should know that you will be the acting bodyguard to his class. Then I'll show you the baths before Shizuna can take you out to get some better fitting clothes. After that, you have four days before the trip to familiarize yourself with the card and just recover, remember the command phrase to activate it is _Adeat, _to deactivate, _Abeat."_

_As he led the man out of his office, he couldn't help but wonder, there was something wrong with the card, not bad or evil, but different. The fact that under the Astralitas category Naruto wasn't tied to any of the standard or predominant planetary guardians was also interesting, perhaps it was something to do with the fact that he wasn't back to full strength yet._

Naruto slowly followed the old man to the dorms, still immersed in looking at the card. Inside him, a little boy that had been buried in cynism ever since the death of his closest confidant started to emerge.

Naruto was excited. He wanted to try this thing out immediately.

A lopsided grin appeared on his face for the first time in months.

Tucking the card in his pocket, he looked out the window, it was a bright sunny day, never had he felt so free.

"Jiji, this is probably the most anyone has ever done for me, if you ever need anything. Just ask."

"Heh, an old man like me doesn't need help from a gaki like you."

Smilling serenely the two men continued down the corridor.

Hands in his pocket he continued to follow the dean to the dorms, not that he knew what it was. When he saw the old man stop at a particular door, he stood behind the jiji, his sight of the door blocked as he leaned against the wall opposite the door, his attention was drawn by the area around him and he looked around like a curious kitten seeing new things. Although Naruto snapped back to attention when he heard the old man knocking on the door and when it was answered by what sounded like a sleepy girl. Wasn't this supposed to be a male teacher's room? Or was Negi a girl?

It was like in slow motion as he swiveled his head to look at the newcomer as the dean moved his body to introduce Naruto to the person at the door.

"Naruto, meet Asuna, she will be in your class with Negi who will be your teacher."

The girl bowed at her introduction but her forehead crinkled and she cocked her head, confused when she noticed the man in front of her was completely oblivious to everything that had been said, his face had gone so pale and his eyes wide open almost like he was panicking.

Everything the dean said went flying out his head as his eyes widened and the blonde paled drastically when he saw the redhead in the doorway with her hair down wearing pyjamas.

Subconsciously he noted from far, the girl's eyes looked the same, but when the light caught her face it was evident she had mismatched eye colors, one a light aquamarine blue, the other a deep blue.

It couldn't be her. Was Kami playing tricks?

She was dead. Her last words haunted his nightmares everyday.

"Akane?"

**AN**

**I'll be completely honest, I know I'll never quit writing, but the thing is, I don't know if I can compete with the awesomeness that is the fights and powers in negima. If I cant match my Naruto up to the canon plotline, I'll feel like I'm insulting something awesome. **

**Astra petas : he who aims for the stars**

**Caerulum : sky blue**

**Occidens : West**

**Caelum Sideralis : Starry skies.**

**The Sniper Rifle is a Barret M82A1 (XM107), only longer and bigger. Probably .55 cal. In reality, with dimensions of that size, it probably doesn't qualify as a sniper rifle anymore….more like a god damn canon. His ninja abilities although weakened allows him to wield the overly large rifle like a normal person would handle a normal rifle. Otherwise the recoil would probably take off his arm, as well as the target's head….and chest….and arms….. .**

**A mini rant. Is it too much to ask for the administrators to add a search criteria that separates YAOI? I don't hate homosexuals, but come on! I read Fanfiction for my enjoyment but its being tainted by the obscene amount of guy buggering guy fics on the site. Everytime I open Naruto or Harry potter category, the first 20 pages or so is ALWAYS predominantly GOD DAMN YAOI. What is it with you people? I give that everyone has their rights….. so just add something like (Only Females) under the character search requirement (A) then pair with any guy we want under Character (B), at least that way we wont see male on male. T^T**

**P.S Persona 4 anime and Guilty crown is AWESOME! T^T i cant stop listening to Euterpe by EGOIST anymore. i'm addicted.**

* * *

**AN 2**

**There was a review i felt needed to be replied but it was annonymous.**

**Hades252 2  
2011-10-13 . chapter 2**

Hmm, I don't know what say but for someone supposedly Jaded and having his 'faith in humanity' broken he seemed almost the opposite with Konoe and Shizuna. Also, why would Konoe place Naruto(a male) in class 2-A(all girl school class)? What, does his new long hair and recovering features make him androgynous like Haku had been? If so then Asuna must be very observant to deem Naruto male at their first introduction. We even come across information on an obvious OC when Naruto first sees Asuna, so the questions are who was this Akane and what was she to him? Though, the pactio Naruto got was pretty cool.

**First, he IS jaded, he was reluctant to trust anyone and even questioned the dean's kindness but he didnt really have a choice did he? better to eat poisoned food rather then to die of starvation. second, did you even read the fic properly? 2-A = trouble magnet = need help = bodyguard. Third Androgynous or not really isnt the point i wanted to make nor did i have any plans to make him fit in as a girl. i left it there for another reason. one your gonna have to wait to find out.**


	3. New Student

**Broken Faith.**

**Disclaimer : Don't own anything including Negima Mahou sensei or other various elements.**

**Chapter 3 **

**New Student**

"Akane?"

The red/orange haired girl with her hair let down looked exactly like her. Only younger, with less curves.

It was official. Kami loved fucking with him, even now, 10000 years later the sick bastard took joy in screwing around with him. If Kami took a signboard and pasted it to his forehead declaring his stupid mistakes it would probably hurt less, definitely more subtle then this stupid event.

Asuna only cocked her head in confusion and watched as the blonde muttered something under his breath about stupid Gods. Then seemingly gathering his wits again the blonde straightened up, his face carefully blank and bowed, introducing himself as Namikaze Naruto.

Konoemon only watched the blonde's reaction out of the corner of his eye, the over-the-top reaction the blonde just displayed was extremely weird and out of character. Then it clicked. The way the blonde's eyes seemed to be roving over Kagurazaka's face and memorizing it even though the rest of his face was blank confirmed something for him. Nonetheless it was something that shouldn't be aired so freely in front of Kagurazaka.

"Hohoho, is Konoka and Negi in?"

Asuna was really confused now, her head swiveling between the Dean and the weird blonde, but tried not to let it bother her, annoying things should be ignored on her off day!

"Konoka is out with Negi, they had some last minute shopping to do I think."

"Hohohoh, it would've been better if Negi was here but I assume you can pass the message for me. This is Naruto, starting from the Kyoto trip he will be joining 3-A as a student. Unofficially, he as one of the few magically aware people on campus will be 3-A's bodyguard."

Asuna's eyes widened, then her jaw dropped, "WHA! A guy? No way! I bet his just a pervert!"

Naruto suddenly developed a twitch in his eye as he stared at the loud girl coldly. Pretty face or not he really didn't appreciate people putting him down. He had enough of that shit in Konoha.

Asuna kept on rambling, but felt a shiver suddenly flow down her spine but was unaware of its origins.

Konoemon just laughed at her expected reaction before cutting her off mid rant, "This is non arguable, my precious granddaughter is going to Kyoto, and 3-A have more than a passing tendency to get into trouble," There were other reasons of course, but he couldn't outright say his son-in-law was losing touch now could he? "My precious, precious granddaughter…..can you and Negi guarantee her protection?"

Asuna was now stumped, she could definitely understand the words, and what could she say in face of a doting grandparent when she didn't have one? "Bu-but, His a GUY!"

"Last I checked, Negi had wedding tackle as well, and not only is he your teacher, which you get along with very well by the way, you even sleep in the same bed with him." Naruto stifled a snort. The old man was laying it on thick. "And you don't even have to worry about Naruto, he will just be in the background, protecting Konoka and as a result the rest of 3-A. I'm not even asking you to let him stay in this room like Negi, just to let him know that he will have support in dire situations."

"Bu…but…." It was clear Asuna was running out of arguments by then and Konoe immediately took advantage of the chink in Asuna's armor, "Plus don't you think Negi as a young ten year old should have more relationships of the male variety? It can't be healthy for a young boy to grow up around only females and the only other male friends he has are decades older….." _Not that I don't have a problem doing that myself…_

And that was that, Asuna's motherly instincts kicked in and she grumbled her agreement although she still glared at the smirking blonde like he was a convicted pervert.

All the time Naruto was simply standing by watching the dean play the red haired girl like a trout on a string, smirking slightly. The old guy was crafty, he'd give him that.

"Anyway, Naruto will drop by tonight to inform Negi directly later after I show him his training area and he gets some supplies with Shizuna sensei, won't he?" that last part was directed at the blonde himself and Naruto only deigned to reply with a curt nod.

Seeing their business was done, Konoe left a frazzled Asuna standing in the doorway in her pyjamas, Naruto following him after a small nod to the girl, while she was technically a colleague, despite how much she looked like _her_, Naruto didn't trust her one jot but common manners was instilled deep in him. With a thorough beating he might add.

His thoughts still percolating on the red haired girl they had left back in the dorms, Naruto walked on autopilot until the dean's voice, quieter than normal pierced the silence. The casual tone was one reminiscent of someone commenting on the weather but the underlying question was as obvious as it was firm in that the old man would not be letting the issue go.

"That Being you kept talking about, her name was Akane wasn't it."

Naruto stopped walking and was instantly on guard and tensed, that was one bit of information he had left out, technically he had left any and all personal information out, the old man only knew about his professional career. So how did this man know?

"Gohohoho, no need to be so tense bouya, an old man like me has seen a lot of things in life you know. I've seen life being born, and life being taken. Coincidentally when you saw Asuna, the look on your face reminded me of the expressions that people who are leftover have. The look they have when they grieve and when they can't believe someone they loved was standing in front of them again. Love in the non platonic sense I might add." Naruto relaxed slightly and continued walking beside the dean but the grimace on his face told more than anything he could ever say, something the crafty old man noticed at once, "Which leads us to here, you neglected to mention any sort of romantic relationships in your earlier narrative, but it was easy to deduce considering the only constant source of companionship had was the being sealed inside you and the tone you always spoke about her with…."

The old man trailed off, but the silence after his words said more than anything else ever could.

Naruto slumped as he walked, "You, old man, are way too cunning." The dean tried not to flinch at the sense of exhaustion in the blonde's tone, it was the tone of someone tired of living, of someone who didn't expect to live but lived anyway and suffered from survivor's guilt along with everything else Kami had seen fit to throw at him.

The blonde seemingly pulled himself together again after a period of silence before speaking again, "None else learns about what I'm going to say, this is only between us old man. This is something I would rather leave in the past, agreed?" he turned to stare at the old man, something the old man returned with equal vigour, "Agreed."

The two men continued the stare off briefly before continuing to walk, "The stigma of being a jinchuriki was something I wouldn't wish on even my enemies. People have been known to grown insane from extreme isolation. Throughout all that, the only reason I stayed remotely sane was because she was always there for me and sooner or later we inevitably fell in love, but even then I refused to let anyone know, after that I made friends, but the stigma stayed, I didn't want to let them know because I was desperate for recognition, for friends, and thought if they knew, they would abandon me. That more than anything scared me. But I think, on some level I was ashamed of Akane being sealed inside me, that was the stigma talking you know and i was selfish, wanting the best of both worlds. Now in hindsight, more than anything, I am ashamed of myself, I hate my old weak selfish self even, for hiding my beloved from others and pretending to hate her and yet not wanting to let go of my human friends. In the end, I made the wrong decisions and lost something that was bigger than any stupid human relationship I had or could ever make, you know what happened. End of story."

Naruto laughed, it was bitter.

Konoe did all he could to suppress the flinch again.

That bitterness wasn't something he was accustomed to hearing from someone that barely looked thirty much less in his late teens.

As they walked side by side, the blonde said something so quiet Konoe almost didn't hear it because of the wind, "And now, I'm tormented every night by her telling me she doesn't blame me, that she loved me even if I was ashamed of her as she was pulled from me. The fact that she knew…. but never let her smile or love falter, that will be my greatest burden for the rest of my life and more punishment than anything Kami, sick bastard that he is, can think of."

In retrospect, the fact that his isolation had might have been orchestrated by the Sandaime so that his own craving for recognition from Konoha would have been the ultimate to way to guarantee his loyalty to Konoha, at least till he had lost everything was too great a possibility to deny was something that Naruto didn't want to face in case it tarred his image of the person he considered his Grandfather.

Naruto and Konoe reached something the old man called an abandoned clearing northwest of the World Tree, right at the edge of the barrier. They had walked here in silence, Konoemon regretting the fact that he had pushed for answers and Naruto maintained his blank composure the whole way here.

"This clearing has been abandoned a long time ago because a demon infiltrated the barrier some time ago and the ensuing fight left some bad connotations among the magically aware staff, not many come here and even less knows about it now. It takes about 30 minutes to reach the dorms from here and another 30 to the main school building, something someone of your abilities can easily shorten. Now the place I was planning on having you stay at is somewh-" Konoemon was cut off by the blonde, "That's alright, I can stay here, its surrounded by forest and its peaceful. I have most of my equipment with me, that includes a tent and some other personal items, I can stay here indefinitely easily as long as there is somewhere available for me to bath?"

Konoemon's jaw had dropped, the blonde was going to stay in the forest? Alone? Well…technically it was ok as long as it was on campus but he would have to alert his border patrols not to bother the young man and rearrange…but wait, "A compromise then, you can stay here, but since this is the edge of the barrier and obviously in the way of the school's patrols, you have take over the planned patrol route for this part of the forest every night and report any intrusion to me starting from after the Kyoto trip, as for the baths, tonight when you go back to Asuna's dorm room, you can ask her to show you the baths, its mixed so don't be too surprised."

It was a good plan too, he didn't have to go beg some girl to share a dorm with a male and he didn't have to rearrange his patrol plans to not bother the man. The reduced cost of hiring Mana since this was part of her route was all good as well. That girl charged through the nose dean or no dean.

"Alright. That's easy enough and patrolling the area isn't much of a problem, in fact I'm used to staying alert at any time of the day to protect myself from attacks to the point where it's pretty much instinctual and would have done it for myself anyway."

Konoemon did not know how to reply to that, indeed what could one say about a boy having to stay alert for his life to the point where it was instinctual at such a young age without being patronizing, so he didn't and just nodded his agreement, "Now let us go back to my office, Shizuna should be there soon enough to show you to the local sundry store where you can get anything you might need for your daily ablutions."

Shizuna was already waiting for the duo when they arrived back at the dean's office, the journey made in silence. Naruto bowed in thanks again to the dean before going off with Shizuna, Konoemon could only watched the blonde's retreating back in silence and curse the judgmental nature of humans once again. Naruto was not the first, nor would he be the last or worst case of human nature's stupidity, not by a long shot, but he couldn't help every case he came along. And that, stung more than anything because he had the resources and the magic. However magic couldn't be used to help without breaking the law and he couldn't go out and spend every coin he had on every Tom, Dick and Jane sob story he came across.

He could only help the way he could and sometimes he wondered if it was enough.

Shaking his head, the dean retired to his office and continue his ever mountainous amount of paperwork.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Shizuna, Naruto felt, was a bit of an air head with a genuinely good heart with the way she could chatter about everything and anything under the sun. along the way Shizuna had talked about the World Tree, the current magical world, the non magical world and its intricacies and even Nitta-sensei's receding hairline and his non-stop efforts at hiding it. The last was something he couldn't stop laughing at. They talked about more current Japanese traditions and Naruto was glad to hear that nothing much had changed in the time he was sealed. He was happy to hear the honorifics system hadn't gone out of style, nor had the more esoteric traditions like tea ceremonies and kimonos. Akane had drilled manners and patience into him by tea ceremonies, and as painful as those times were, they were also some of the best. Some had changed of course, innovations like the currency and the government was on par for the course, but it was the little details that mattered.

It felt good to smile and laugh and chatter about something that was for once in his life, NOT earth shaking.

Then he thought of something and gave voice to his question, "Shizuna-sensei, I have copies of a few books that were very popular from my time period. They were written by my godfather and I would like to edit them before republishing them, do you know how or what regulations I'd need to follow?"

"Oh? What books are they Naruto?

How was he supposed to say porn? "Uh…..romance novels?"

The green haired teacher put a finger to her lips in thought for a few moments before replying, "Ummm….. the nearest reliable book publisher I know is in Harajuku… but I don't really know much, but I think you have to patent your work after it is published so people don't try to copy it, but I think its usually included in the contract you sign with your publishers…"

"Patent? Whats that?"

"Oh I keep forgetting you're not from this era, patent is simply a document that establishes your ownership over an intangible idea. Like this book you want to sell, its your ideas, and you wrote it, the patent lets you sue someone who would try to copy your work and take advantage of it." the teacher tried to explain it as simple as she could.

Naruto nodded while thinking about the possible complications, "Can you show me the way to this book publisher today?"

Shizuna kept walking, obviously thinking about her schedule, "I don't really think so, after we buy your supplies we have to walk back to wherever your accommodation is before I show you how to go to Haraju-"

"Its ok Shizuna-sensei, you don't have to worry about lugging the stuff with me, after we buy them, I can easily store them in any of my scrolls once we're out of sight, after that you have time to show the place to me?"

"Um….. in that case, I do have enough time, but I can only show you the publisher, after that we'd have to rush back here for an appointment I have later this evening, is that ok with you?"

"Yeah sure, but you don't have to worry about me, I can find my way back easily." Naruto answered with a casual wave of his hand. He didn't necessarily have to mention he could teleport instantaneously to a kunai marker he had left back in the clearing so it wouldn't really be problem.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

It really was a surprise, the groceries had gone well enough, just a few sets of his new uniform, some food and toiletries, everything was sealed into the scroll on his hip. The blonde and the teacher chatted amiably all the while and had gotten along fairly well. That is to say, Shizuna was somebody he would regret having to kill should it come to that.

It was even more of a surprise when Shizuna had shown him to the publishers. The editor he had met explained to him that the company generally sold a wide variety of books and had accepted his edited copy of Icha Icha Paradise, first of twenty smutty books without any problem. In fact, the editor was drooling. He really didn't want to know. He really didn't.

He had even been given his first down payment so he could comfortably splurge on himself for now and still have enough to repay the old man and Shizuna three times over for all the money they had given him. Something which he planned to do as soon as possible. That was when he noticed a familiar energy signature. One that he had met this morning. One that reminded him of buried memories.

Asuna was in Harajuku.

Curious the blonde took to the rooftops, and followed the energy signature like a bloodhound on a scent, wrapped in the shadows of a billboard atop a tall building, Naruto watched as Asuna along with a blonde girl approached the park. Their target was a young couple, surprisingly their targets were practically leaking magical energy into the air, a cute brunette and a red haired kid that was lying on the brunette's lap. He watched their antics for awhile and while his face maintained its stoic standard, he would freely admit he felt a bit envious of their care freeness and innocence. Playing in the park with friends, more worried about what to eat then to avoid being eaten. Then again, one could argue so far, the whole reason he was revived in this era was to relax as well. And so he watched with a small smile, as three other girls joined the four in the park, the blonde girl and Asuna occasionally bickering while everyone watched on.

Channeling chakra to his ears, he could hear that it was Asuna's birthday, he wasn't sure why, but he felt like he should at least get something for her. They were colleagues after all….. with that in mind, he created a few clones that teleported back to the clearing with all his supplies, intent on setting up his new home as well as getting the present he had in mind while the original lounged on the rooftops content on watching the merry making below him.

Then he felt it, if he wasn't so relaxed he wouldn't have noticed the slight killer intent. Had he been his usual high strung self, he would have missed the killer intent for only two reasons. One, because it was so low in intensity it simply wouldn't register as a threat or two, the source was skilled enough to avoid his detection. Whoever it was, the culprit was watching Asuna and her friends from afar. Despite being able to sense the killer intent, the blonde was unable to determine the target. Just that he or she was among the 7 people in the park nor could he track the killer intent back to its source because of the distance. That alone was enough to put him on edge. Rather than someone weak, it was far more likely that there was someone here with enough ability to hide from his ninja senses, weakened as they may be, because let's face it, his luck pretty much sucked in cases like this.

He watched the gang, his narrowed blue eyes swiveling around in the darkness and followed the gang until he was sure whoever intended his charges harm was gone, for now anyway. When he was satisfied they weren't in danger, the blonde teleported back home while the rest were going to the karaoke. Once he opened his crystal blue eyes, he looked around the clearing before creating a shadow clone which he ordered to let the dean know about what he had sensed today and repay the money the dean had lent him before the original set about clearing the pretty spacious tent.

When the clone's memories returned he just smiled and continued his interior decorating. The old man was openly grateful that he had the foresight of 'hiring an experienced ninja' and expressed his gratitude. In the old man's opinion, the ninja's presence had probably deterred anything more than a simple reconnaissance mission, although he had known beforehand there would obstacles for Negi, that they had appeared in this particular place and date implied that this particular obstacle was related to the Kyoto trip and had said as much, telling the clone to be careful. The shadow clone had then proceeded to repay all the money the old man had lent him before bowing and poofing away.

The original finished setting up his new home before heading off to relax in the baths after making sure his clones were properly making what he had planned as a gift for Asuna's birthday later at night.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Asuna just had what she considered the best day in her short life. This was the first time she had celebrated her birthday with someone her age excluding Konoka (Takamichi-sensei and the dean didn't count). She had gotten more presents today than at any other birthdays (the cheerleader's purchases to stop Konoka and Negi from having a good date), she felt accepted and had good friends (even if Ayaka was too stubborn to admit it).

She was extremely happy, surprisingly even more so than when Takamichi-sensei had given her the bells she currently used as hair pins.

The moon outside was particularly bright tonight, that combined with the fact that she was so happy was probably the reason why she couldn't sleep. Negi for some reason had gone to sleep in his bed for once. Asuna snuggled into bed but her mind was still too giddy and high to let her sleep.

As she lay there on her bed, looking out the windows and staring at the night sky, she suddenly heard a few strains of haunting music floating through her bed room window. For some reason the sound stirred unfamiliar feelings, like she had lost something and never knew. Something she had heard before but the memory taken from her and left behind empty void in her head as she tried to grasp the feeling in her.

(Play Euterpe by Egoist)

Curious and a little frightened, if magic existed, what was to say ghosts didn't? The orange haired girl slowly moved to the window, clutching her pillow as she went, the music getting louder and louder but for some weird reason no one else in the dorm stirred.

Her breath hitched when she reached the window. Outside on a tree was 3-A's supposed bodyguard.

The blonde was wearing different clothes, black pants and shirt that covered a white undershirt finished off with a metal studded belt and boots. His hair seemed to have been trimmed; rather than the untidy but roguish waterfall down his back it had been yesterday he had it trimmed and tied into a thin pony tail that fell down his back with some bangs that fell down the side of his face. The blonde sat on a tree branch, leaning on the tree trunk with a relaxed pose, one leg swinging from his seat as he played a flute.

That was the source of the haunting tune and it seemed to embody the blonde, as if the flute was the musical analog of his soul. Sad, uplifting and hopeful all at once. She was so entranced by the music and the sight of his fingers dancing across the flute that she didn't realize when the music stopped and only snapped out of her trance when he spoke.

"I heard it was your birthday today."

Speechless the girl could only nod in a daze until the blonde snapped his hand out and threw a long, thin and wrapped package at her. Stumbling a bit the girl stared wide eyed at the package.

"It's a flute like the one I was playing, learning to play a flute will help you to concentrate and have more patience. My teacher told me I was severely lacking in both and beat me into learning it, I thought it would be useful for you as well. If you need lessons seek me out in private." The blonde stood as he started to leave, a dark cloak unfurling from his shoulders where it had been wrapped around his neck.

"Wait! Ca-can you play that song again? I do-don't know how to explain it, but when I heard it, it felt like I lost something, I-I don't know what I lost but something's missing and it felt like only your song could bring it back." Naruto stared at the girl as she wrung her hands, obviously panicking. This was definitely unexpected. He had cast a genjutsu to bring her to him, but unexpectedly his genjutsu had struggled against something in her mind, even more surprising, she had felt the clashing, something that normal people would never have noticed.

To be perfectly honest, he sucked at genjutsu and would never be able to cast any genjutsu with handsigns alone, Akane had refused to let him have such a big hole in his education and as such had taught him to use the flute as a medium and amplifier to cast genjutsu. He would never be able to cast genjutsu as the likes of Kakashi and Itachi did and the only kinds he would ever be able to use could only target the hearing with the flute. But it was better than nothing.

Nonetheless, when he had earlier started playing the flute to cast the rest of the dorm into a deep sleep and bring Asuna to him, he had sensed his genjutsu clashing with something else in Asuna's mind, a barrier of sorts, and most likely the clashing had brought those feelings Asuna had described to the surface. He didn't know what the barrier did, but according to the girl it apparently blocked some of her memories, on the other hand, the barrier was definitely man made, natural barriers felt different and usually resulted from some sort of mental trauma. Nonetheless, he had absolutely no experience in matters like this and trying to bring down the barrier with his minimal abilities would only result in disaster for all parties involved.

So he did the only thing he could and played his flute again. This time casting a genjutsu to calm and relax the distraught girl down, it was probably excruciating; knowing you lost something, but not knowing what, how or when you lost it. It would be best she did not know or remember what she had discovered this night although he would have to speak to the dean if someone was putting memory barriers on his students unauthorized.

He played the flute on that tree for goodness knows how long until he noticed that the girl had fallen asleep sitting on the window sill while cradling the package. A peaceful and content expression on her face. Leaping forward the blonde entered the window silently and gently picked the sleeping girl up, carrying her to bed bridal style. Once he tucked her in, he stood by her bed side, uncertain and hesitating, he brought one hand to her cheek and brushed it softly. He could hear her breathing soften and even out, while she snuggled into the hand caressing her cheeks. He shook his head. This wasn't Akane. Akane was dead because of him. and the blonde left like a shadow in the night, his passing more silent than a ghost's breath.

As he left, he berated himself for being such a pussy around Asuna. Although he was confused as to why he couldn't stop himself from being so… open to Asuna and acted weirdly around her, that casting of a genjutsu on the whole dorm had brought unexpected benefits in the form of information. The magically aware students apparently were far less susceptible to genjutsu than the non-magical aware ones and that there were three half demons among the students.

That was good to know, with that knowledge he could probably watch out for any illusions that targeted them or know whether he could cast one on his classmates in the future to hide something. The three half demons on the other hand obviously realized a genjutsu was being cast but because it wasn't malicious, they probably let it pass otherwise he would have been attacked immediately.

Although whether his genjutsu was successful or not depended on the amount of his chakra, the more powerful the opponent, the more chakra he had to expend and it also depended on his strength of will against that of the targets. That most of the dorm was already asleep of course made his job so much easier.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Asuna woke up groggily the next morning with a slight headache. She felt like she just had a really weird dream until the package she had been cradling in her arms rolled off the bed. Surprised, the redhead picked it up and unwrapped it. A wooden flute that was as long as her arms rolled out on to the bed along with a small card. Fascinated she picked it up to read it, "Happy 15th birthday Asuna. If you want lessons in using the flute, remember to ask me in private. I've also included some basic notes for guidance on how to get started on playing this flute. Remember, playing it will help calm you down and lets you concentrate better."

Intrigued, the red haired girl took another gander at the flute lying on her bed. It looked like any normal flute but there were intricate carvings along the body, carvings of foxes dancing in a forest. That was when she remembered that the bodyguard had shown up in the middle of the night to give this to her as a birthday present. For some obscure reason the thought warmed her insides more than the party last night and the melody from then seemed to hum inside her. Then she got angry, that pervert was hanging around the girl's dorm at night! And for some reasons she had been too distracted to bash his head in!

It was 10 am, 3 days till the Kyoto trip where we found our favourite blonde in the dean's office the day after Asuna's birthday, intending on getting some answers.

"Jiji, that girl you introduced to me yesterday, Asuna, did you know that she has a memory barrier placed on her? And that you have two half demons in the dorms? Don't get me wrong, I don't have any prejudice against demons or half demons but at the same time I don't deny their capacity for collateral damage is far more than the average human." Inwardly Naruto wanted to laugh at the flabbergasted look on the dean, he probably wasn't meant to find out things like that so fast.

"Hohoho, you are definitely a good ninja. I'm very very surprised you learnt about that so easily. The memory barrier….i didn't authorize it, but I know of it it and who placed it. It was placed before she came here, you see, Asuna is an orphan with a traumatic past, the seal was meant to allow her to forget it and function normally in society." Naruto just nodded in agreement, he could let that go, if it were possible he would have probably accepted the barrier on himself if the situation was similar.

"And the half demons?"

Here the old man steepled his fingers and stared at the ninja, "I need your assurance what I'm going to tell you isn't going to be spread around, Naruto." Naruto just gave him a 'are you serious? I'm a ninja, we do this shit all the time' deadpan stare, Konoemon, seeing the stare only laughed before continuing his explanations, "You see, the world we are currently in, is one side of a mirror, the magical folk call this world Mundus Vetus. The other side of the mirror, one exclusively for the magical side, Mundus Magicus exists in another dimension. For various reasons, some personal and some not so, both half demons have chosen to stay in this world and blend in with the non magical. If you should be able to get close to them and ask for their reasons, that is your prerogative, but I won't tell you anything because it is their secret to keep."

Naruto just nodded, everyone had their reasons after all then he saluted and poofed.

Konoemon just stared at where the man had been standing scant seconds ago, '_That….was a clone?'_

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

In Naruto's clearing, sounds of grunts and something whooshing around and something smacking wood could clearly be heard.

If one were to peek, one would see a clearing filled with identical blonde people, divided into groups, all of them wore the same thing, black form fitting clothes with light armor. Only one of the blondes stood out because the blonde in question was currently topless. Why was he topless?

After performing various some light exercises to limber up, Naruto had created close to three hundred clones. All the other clones were experimenting with their skills, checking to see if everything worked as he remembered it, the Rasengan and its variants, Sage Mode, and the few elemental skills he had. After gaining the Rinnegan, which automatically gave him an affinity to all five main chakra natures, Naruto had taken advantage of the affinities to learn something other than his rasengan variants, destructive as they may be, he sorely lacked any sort of ranged attacks. Meanwhile, another hundred clones weren't exercising but sitting down at the side and all of them read a book on whatever the dean gave them, twice per book. Social, political, economical and geological changes as well as current traditions mostly.

The Hiraishin was already checked out and it worked fine, slightly sluggish compared to its normal performance but workable, something he attributed to a lack of chakra in the air unlike the atmosphere from his era after activating his Rinnegan to check for any mistakes in his form and the surroundings. But then again, sluggish in Hiraishin equated to about one sixteenth of a second compared to the standard one twentieth of a second, the difference was probably negligible. Once all the clones that were evaluating his skills were done, the original ordered all of them to disperse in groups of ten, except the clones were currently gathering Natural energy for Sage Mode. Sage Mode was definitely going to be a problem, the rate of activation was crap compared to his era, then again…modernization…..etc, for example, he had five clones set out to gather the standard amount of natural energy, usually they took less than 20 minutes for 1 hours worth of Sage mode, but now, they had been at it for 30 minutes and had gathered barely enough for 50 minutes viable but definitely not satisfactory in battle.

Another clone stood separated from all the rest holding the sniper rifle he obtained from the pactio and was trying to figure out to how to use it.

The original frowned as he continued exercising, or rather, he was upside down, one finger balanced on the tip of one kunai and two boulders on each feet attached with chakra as he did pumps. Which was why he was topless with sweat glistening down his body. Sage Mode was an important part of his arsenal, and if right now he, in the middle of a small forest which was enhanced by magic could barely gather anything; what did that say about doing it in the middle of a city like Harajuku?

The absorption rate of Natural energy was as efficient as it was 10000 years ago, but there was less of the energy in the atmosphere. Worse come to worst, he had other trump cards, so it wasn't really that important though.

Suddenly the clones he had spread about the clearing along with their activated Rinnegans as an early warning system let him know a familiar energy signature was nearing the clearing. Immediately all the clones dispersed, even the alert clones while the original continued doing pushups on a kunai, switching fingers every 2 sets. That was his limit for now, at peak efficiency he could probably push 10 sets per finger with boulders twice the size the ones he had one his legs right now and that was without any chakra enhancements at all.

He continued his pushups, ignoring the person, although her presence reminded him that he should go and get some food from Satsuki later tonight. Then go feed some cats. Having had enough of his pushups he flipped the boulders on the soles of his feet into the air and pushed his body upwards, flexing around, the blonde kicked both boulders, crashing them near the edge of the clearing opposite from where the voyeur was and landed feet first. Stretching the kinks out of his body he started going through a few basic katas that resembled Tai-chi of today, not that Naruto knew that. The katas were something that he primarily used to relax after a vigorous exercise and cool off but maintain his limber muscles.

Chachamaru was having a normal day. Wake up, breakfast, tinker around the house before heading off for where she worked during the holidays, Chao Bao Zi. Or at least it was normal right up until she and her master felt the flares of incredible energy. It felt like someone was firing a spell on par with the '100 Arrows of Light' over and over again without stopping. Evangeline was wide eyed of course, she in her natural form could match the output, no problem, but people with incredibly large natural reserves were rare, that and whoever this person was he had twice as much as Negi in terms of pure power capacity to keep up the output for so long.

Chachamaru was wide eyed for another reason. The magical signature belonged to _him._ The blonde with the cats. What was he doing shooting spells of mass destruction so close to their home? Did this mean she had misjudged him wrong and that he was really a bounty hunter after her master? Wait no, he wasn't coming any closer to their cottage. The location was constant according to her sensors, about 1 kilometer due north from their cottage, that put him at the edge of the barrier, exactly what was he doing there? Was he trying to collapse the barrier? By she didn't detect any fluctuations in the barrier so that meant he wasn't attacking it.

Looking at her master, Chachamaru asked her Master for permission to check what was happening. Eva seeing the questioning look in her doll's eyes just nodded, the silent command obvious. Eva watched as her gynoid, maid uniform wearing servant jumped off into the forest, she sincerely hoped whatever it was, wasn't malicious, Chachamaru was the closest thing she had to family nowadays, apart from Chachazero. That and she was certain Chachamaru wouldn't survive a hostile encounter against something twice as powerful as Negi and judging by the constant flaring of spells, certainly didn't lack in offensive power to utilize his reserves. But she had to send the green haired gynoid anyway; it was part of her contract to maintain the barrier and it was not like she could do anything herself in this state.

Chachamaru sped to the clearing, slowing down before she reached the source of the energy flares before slowing down so that she didn't alert anyone that she was there, however before the clearing came into sight all flares of energy immediately stopped. That put her on edge. The blonde had probably detected her already but she didn't stop and hid herself at the edge of the clearing, observing the blonde. He seemed to be doing pushups….only more intense and way more dangerous. Looking around the clearing, she spotted nothing else besides the blonde and a medium sized tent. It almost seemed like he was living here, but did he have clearance and if he did, why wasn't her master notified? Her processors couldn't make heads or tails of it all so she settled for watching the blonde continue his pushups.

She didn't know how long she stood there, watching almost entranced as she lost track of time and even forgot her Master waiting back at the cottage, her optical visors almost unvoluntarily followed the beads of sweat that rolled down his toned body as it sinuously twisted and flexed doing pushups and katas. Even as she stayed stationary and watched, her chasis started heating up again and the gears in her chest seemed to spin faster. Only this time, the heat seemed different from the one that had occurred when she had bumped into him feeding the cats, twice in one week?

Chachamaru took the time do divert her eyes as she frowned at her chest.

Something was really wrong with her, but her diagnostics couldn't pick up anything wrong. Her processors were almost frustrated that it couldn't find anything wrong with the heating up. Giving the android equivalent of a shrug she continued to watch the blonde dance through smooth katas, his muscles compacting and releasing. Suddenly the blonde stopped and grabbed a towel hanging from his tent to wipe the sweat from his body.

Naruto finished his training, satisfied with the results, he was still a bit weak, but that was just muscle atrophy, his chakra reserves were down to 20% but should be back to 40% in time for the trip, it was noticeably slower than usual, what with the tree and the sword sharing but it wasn't any slower than say, a normal human would regenerate chakra. He silently wondered if this was what normal shinobi always felt like after exhausting themselves, if so, he could see why the shinobi that talked to him about his regeneration were always so envious. It sucked not being able to throw S-rank jutsu's of mass destruction on a whim, that last statement caused him to chuckle to himself.

Setting up a small fire and some water to boil, he retreated into his tent for a shirt and his tea leaves. Preparing the tea, he sat back against a boulder and gestured to where the interloper was still watching him to come closer.

When the gynoid jumped down from the tree her face slightly red, he couldn't help but raise one eyebrow at her outfit but didn't ask anything and let her sit down on a log near him. he noticed she was rather cautious of him but didn't comment and together they sat in silence until the tea was done. He himself sat relaxed but never let his guard down.

It was only after he had served the gynoid a cup of tea that the silence was broken, " So what brings you out here so far from the school?" the blonde asked.

The gynoid seemed to think about her answer for awhile before replying, "My Master and I live about a kilometer south from here in a cottage. When we both felt something using great amounts of energy we were both immediately concerned that someone or something was attacking the school or meant my master harm."

"oh….." something seemed to dawn on the blonde's face, "I'll have to remember to set up some seals so that my training doesn't bother anyone, although so far from school I doubt anyone else noticed."

Chachamaru watched the blonde's face, although his tone was casual and his body seemed relaxed, his expression never changed from its stoicism, "That would be advisable. Although, this clearing has been abandoned for a while and no one is supposed to come here unless for professional reasons, so if I may ask, who are you and what are you doing here?" the gynoid asked.

"Eh? I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, Namikaze Naruto. The dean hasn't told anyone yet? I'm a transfer student. I'm supposed to be joining class 3-A starting from the Kyoto trip. I suppose I have to let 3-A's homeroom teacher know later since the dean obviously hasn't told anyone I'm going to be transferring into Mahora Academy either. As for what I'm doing here…. I live here." The blonde gave a small shrug, "I certainly don't fancy intruding on a teenage girl's privacy and there isn't any empty rooms in the dorm, so I stay here where its peaceful. I like being surrounded by the forest.

Chachamaru was definitely surprised now, the blonde was going to join _her _class? And go to the Kyoto trip? Unbidden, her processors suddenly felt going to Kyoto was desirable but was still unfortunately outweighed by her Master's needs, "3-A? that's the class my Master and I attend."

"Oh? And you are…?"

"Chachamaru."

"Its nice to meet you Chachamaru-san, I hope we can be work together in class properly." The blonde gave a small bow and a small. This was the first time Chachamaru had seen him break his stoic expression enough to smile at her. She felt an unknown warmth settle in her stomach region but attributed it to the tea she was drinking.

"Nice to meet you too, Naruto-san."

Silence fell after that introduction and they both silently sipped their tea.

When Chachamaru finished her tea, it was almost two hours since she had left the cottage, and she suddenly realized her Master was probably waiting for any information. Standing up she gave the blonde a small bow, "Thank you for the tea Naruto-san, it was delicious. I hope to see you again but I need to go now, my Master is probably waiting for me."

Naruto only watched the gynoid leave in silence. '_Nante omoshiroi no…hito da.'_

**First Day of Kyoto Trip**

Naruto sat atop a building's roof, the shadow hiding his presence from everyone else as bustling noises from below reached his ears. The rest of his class was scurrying around getting ready to depart for Kyoto. The blonde sighed, his presence was bound to cause even more chaos for the 10 year kid that was the homeroom teacher, not to mention the inevitable barrage of annoying questions from annoying people. When he had talked to Negi that day after Chachamaru had left, the little boy had been VERY surprised, and he showed it too. By shouting it to the world. He was lucky the third roommate was asleep and hadn't heard his outburst about male bodyguards in a pervert's wet dream of a school.

Asuna had of course silenced the panicking boy with a smack upside the head and received a grateful nod from the blonde. Naruto really didn't like loud noises. Shortly after he had outlined his tasks to the redheaded boy he had stepped out of the dorm but Asuna had pulled on his left sleeve, a shy expression her face. Naruto almost grimaced, when Asuna looked shy and demure, she could have been the god damn reincarnation of Akane but held it in and asked in a polite tone if he could help her.

**Flashback**

"A-ano, thanks for the gift yesterday, I didn't have the chance to thank you and I drifted off to sleep.**"**

"That's alright, think of it as a gift from a colleague, after all we're working together to keep the class safe." Naruto replied but didn't notice the slight flinch Asuna gave at his impersonal and stoic tone.

"A-anyway, do you mind teaching me how to use the flute? I want to learn how to make music as beautiful as the one you made that night. It felt so peaceful." Asuna asked the blonde.

"I would be honored to pass on my teacher's teachings Asuna-san…" '_to someone that looks exactly like her. How ironic.' _"When you have time, feel free to seek me out whenever you want, I'll be sure to spend some time aiding you." Naruto replied before giving a small bow.

Asuna stood outside the door to her dorms watching the blonde leave, ponytail swaying behind his broad shoulders with her hands clutched to her chest. For some weird reason her heart was beating really fast. Then she realized what she was doing, swooning over some stranger that visited her in the middle of the night, how shameful! And the orange haired girl immediately rushed into her dorm, slamming the door closed. Didn't stop her heart beating so fast though. And she was pretty sure there was a blush on her face as well….

"….Suna, Asuna!"

"Guh? What is it Negi! Stop shouting in my face."

"Huh? I was just asking what was wrong, you went outside to say something to Naruto-san then suddenly you run in and slam the door, your face is all red and your acting weird. Whats wrong?" Negi asked the equally puzzled girl.

"Grrr, nothing, don't worry about it, have you packed for the Kyoto trip yet?"

"Eeeeh…..but I wanna know….. what did you do Asuna?"

*Smack* Negi clutched the new lump on his head courtesy of an even redder Asuna.

"Nothing! Its nothing! Go pack your bags Negi!"

**Flashback End.**

Naruto of course did not know about that last conversation between Asuna and Negi the night before. Nonetheless even as he slacked around on the rooftop, he was amused to note that the boy was being harassed by almost everybody in class. Being dragged around like a life size plush toy by a blonde woman, multiple girls asking him out, Asuna mothering him and Konoka laughing from the sidelines.

The blonde couldn't help but sweatdrop, If he didn't know any better he'd swear that Negi was the perfect role model for hen pecked husbands that didn't know how to say No. then again, he was just ten, handling women wasn't in the job description. Yet.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Below with Negi**

**Group-1: Misa Kakizaki, Modoka Kugimiya, Sakurako Shiina, Fuuka and Fumika Narutaki**

"KONOKA-SAN CLASS 3-A IS OVER HERE!" Fuuka shouted out the window.

"The twins are sure alike. They're noisy," Misa said jokingly.

"Aw come on it's more fun that way," Modoka said.

"Negi-kun, the birthday party the day before yesterday was fun!" Sakurako said.

"Hey that's no fair you got play with Negi-sensei!" Fumika pouted.

"Ahahah, It was fun let's do it again sometime soon, we'll remember to bring you and Fuuka as well Ok?" Negi said.

"Eheh, Negi-sensei is soooo nice!"

**Group-2: Satsuki Yotsuba, Misora Kasuga, Kaede Nagase, Satomi Hakase, Chao Lingshen and Ku Fei**

Satsuki Yotsuba was walking around selling nikuman as she got on the train. "She sells those things everywhere huh?" Misora Kasuga, the tomboy track star of the class, said jovially. Kaede nodded as she as was eating one.

"Do you want one too Kasuga-san?" Satomi Hakase, resident scientist of the class, asked. Misora just shook her head no. Chao Lingshen, the Chinese foreign exchange student was looking around merrily wondering if she could use Negi to sell the meat buns in England. She also watched as Ku Fei loudly offered Negi some food which he gently declined.

**Group-3: Kazumi Asakura, Natsumi Murakami, Chisame Hasegawa, Chizuru Naba and Ayaka Yukihiro**

Natsumi entered the car looking at everything with awe. Chisame was just considering everything stupid. Asakura was busy taking pictures of everything, Chizuru was busy laughing at Ayaka's antics around Negi, "Arara, Iincho's at it again."

"Hey Iichino (class rep) try to lower down the illegal child seduction to a minimum before lunch time okay?" Asakura said while snapping pictures of Ayaka haras-*ahem* advising their homeroom teacher.

Ayaka of course completely ignored the jab and continued talking, "I've rented out the entire green car, so let's take our time and relax there. Just the two of us 3," Ayaka said whispering the last part.

"I-Iichino-san I still have some work to do!" Negi said waving his arms frantically.

"Seriously Iichino at least let him finish his work before trying to abduct Negi-sensei." A new voice shouted. Group 3 turned to see the source of the voice; Makie Sasaki of group 4.

**Group-4: Akira Okochi, Mana Tatsumiya, Ako Izumi, Yuna Akashi and Makie Sasaki**

"Are you guys okay?" a stoic, dark skinned beauty asked the group ahead of her. "Ah, we're fine, Iincho and group 3 hurry and get in~" Negi said as he pushed the group into the train car. Ayaka was pouting at being disturbed of course but being who she was she refused to go and declared it her duty as class president to help the homeroom teacher settle everyone in. that she could stay beside him was a just a bonus. Just a bonus…..

Meanwhile…

"Ako, are you sick even before the trip starts?" Akira asked while rubbing Ako's back.

"N-no, I think I just ate too much nikuman," Ako replied using Yuna as support.

"You want me to get you water?" Yuna asked. Ako nodded and Yuna bought some from the vending machine on the train.

Makie ignored the byplay of her group and steamrolled directly to her 'adorable' home room teacher, "Negi-kun! Do you want to hang out with us as during free activity day!" Makie questioned loudly and happily causing Negi, (Naruto who was unnoticed) and Chamo to sweat drop at her energy.

"Sasaki-san he's taken, err very busy," Ayaka replied hotly. This caused Makie to pout and turn away.

**Group-5: Nodoka Miyazaki, Haruna Saotome, Yue Ayase, Asuna Kagurazaka and Konoka Konoe**

When the last group came up for their turn, Asuna and Konoka went to talk to Negi, unnoticed to them the last three members of their group were discussing something very important, "This is your chance Nodoka! Go ask him 'Will you go out with me on free activity day?'" Haruna suggested to the quiet book worm.

"B-but…" was all Nodoka could say.

"Come on I don't think Negi-sensei would turn you down if you ask him." Yue just watched her friends as she sipped her juice box.

"Negi did you eat properly?" Asuna asked the boy.

"Yes I did. Thanks for the onigiri (rice balls)"

"Thank goodness they were okay," Konoka said. "Oh hello Iichino." Only noticing the blonde girl at the last minute.

The girls nodded and waited for Negi to finish, they were the last group after all. Iichino and Konoka stood to the side, talking about something. "eeh…. I think we are missing some people," Negi said, causing everyone in group 5 to look at him.

"Let's see…" Asuna, Iincho and Negi looked at the clipboard only to be interrupted by a new voice.

"Excuse me, Negi-sensei," the voice said. The duo looked up to see a girl with ebony hair put up in a pony tail that hung to the left with the right half of her forehead covered in bangs, while the other wasn't.

"Ah you're seat number 15 Setsuna Sakurazaki, and is that Zazie Rainyday behind you," Negi asked as he marked the two off the clipboard.

"I am supposed to be the leader of group six, but since Evangeline-san and Chachamaru-san are not here, it is only me and Zazie-san. What do we do?" Setsuna asked.

"Oh I forgot Evangeline-san wasn't going on the trip," Negi said. Asuna and Chamo both sweat dropped, more happy that she couldn't come after all, they hadn't forgotten the vampire fiasco yet.

"I know why don't you join another group," Negi suggested. "Alright, Sakurazaki-san can go with Asuna-san and Zazie-san can go with Iichino-san." The respective girls agreed.

Negi looked at his clipboard again, and started panicking, "Uguuu, one last student is missing, where is he and why is he so late!"

Setsuna blinked, one more student? Aside from Sayo, Chachamaru and Evangeline, all three of whom were pretty much stuck in Mahora, there wasn't anyone else that she knew off on the class roster.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The other classes had already orderly made their way onto the train and only Negi's group was still messing about. Then again, having that near bald and old strict teacher probably had something to do with it.

Although he had to admit, this class sure took the cake, almost everywhere he looked the girls in this class was pretty, cute or beautiful.

It took a while but when the last group was almost on board, Asuna, Konoka, two purple haired girls, one green haired girl and one last minute addition, the swordswoman, he decided to move his lazy butt. He walked to the edge of a building before waving at something unseen and casually jumped from the top of the roof to an alley he strolled towards the panicking teacher.

On another building, Chachamaru who had been watching their class with her Master blushed, her internal circuits overheating again, something that was becoming a trend in the presence of the only blonde male student in her class. Luckily her Master had not noticed.

"Aahh…. Everyone's leaving for Kyoto already." Her Master said.

Nodding to the side, too distracted by the wave she had just received from the blonde, Chachamaru replied with the first thing that came to her mind, "It's a shame we cant go with them Master."

Eva blinked, did her servant actually sound wistful? "Wha-what do you mean 'we'?"

"I…I mean you looked like you really wanted to go Master, I mean…. Negi is there…." Chachamaru trailed off leaving her meaning obvious.

"Awawa, I don't want to go to Kyoto because of that Gaki! Enough lets go home." Evan started walking off only to stop in her tracks.

Eva blinked again, did her servant just use mutually assured blackmail to change the topic? She shook her head a bit, the heat must be getting to her.

"Yo Negi-sensei."

"Naruto! You were almost late!" the small teacher exclaimed as he ran to the blonde.

The so-called bodyguard was wearing rugged jeans, boots, a leather belt, a black dress shirt and white undershirt, his right arm hefting a backpack under some sort of cloak.

"Heh, warui, warui, I was actually already here an hour ago but I fell asleep on a bench somewhere." The blonde replied with a casual smirk, Negi could only sweatdrop at the blonde's casual attitude. How was he supposed to be a reliable bodyguard like this?

"Come on, you can join me in the teacher's dorm since you're the only other guy, feel free to follow whichever group for activities though."

Naruto followed the group of chatting teenagers when he shivered as he felt an intense killing intent come from behind, his body almost reacted on automatic to pull a kunai and lodge it in the source's head but stopped the impulse when he saw the source was the last minute swordswoman. When his mind registered again, he noticed her killing intent was one of righteous female fury instead of malice.

Ah crap, another feminist lesbian with a chip on the shoulder for all men, he had enough of that crap from Kurenai. Why didn't they take his words about not being a pervert at face value and leave him alone.

Not liking the continuous stare that was trying a dig a hole at the back of his head he gave her a glare over his left shoulder, fusing it Killing intent and watched the girl crumble as the message was sent.

'_Wha! A man? How can a man join Mahora Academy! And in this class, he will be a danger to Konoka ojousama!' _Setsuna continued to glare at the now only male student in 3-A, heck only male student in the middle school section, period. And she kept glaring at him, how dare he pollute the air that Konoka ojousama breathed with his manly presence.

She kept the glare right up until she saw the man look over his shoulder right at her. From her point of view behind group 5 she could only see the left side of the man's chiselled face. Then he glared back. For an instant, her breathing stopped as an image of her dead body impaled on spikes in front of Mahora's gates came unbidden to the mind's eye. For an instant she would swear the blonde's single eye that was focused on her turned fire red and she would do anything to turn that gaze away from her. The message was simple, 'I don't give a damn about your opinion regarding my gender and I don't intend your class harm, and now I have my job to do, if you insist on blocking MY way, I'll tear right through you and enjoy it.'

When time went back to normal speed it was all she could to not collapse to her knees, even then her knees were still knocking against each other as she watched the man follow the rest of group 5 into the train, his single eye never left hers and his ponytail swayed with the waves of power she could now notice clear as day.

Her eyes widened, now that the man had allowed her to see his aura, the energy signature was as clear as day, how could she have forgotten, he was the person that dug himself out from under the World Tree 2 weeks ago. She would have to let Mana and Kaede know, this man was obviously a threat.

The chain of command established, Naruto followed the redheaded boy who was chatting incessantly with Asuna and Konoka. The other three were obviously gossiping, or at least the green haired one was…along with giggling and lewd looks in his direction. The swordswoman was keeping her distance. As in 10 feet pole distance.

When they reached the car where the rest of 3-A was Negi's shrill voice cut through the mass of gossiping females, "Minna san! I have an announcement to make! Please keep quiet!"

Which was of course not heard by anyone other than Iincho, who then proceeded to beat the rest into submission with her louder than normal voice, "EVERYONE! NEGI-SENSEI HAS AN ANNOUNCEMENT, BE QUIET!"

And let there be light, or silence as the case may be.

Negi blushed at the attention before gathering himself and speaking loudly, "As you know, Mahora middle school is usually exclusive for girls, but there has been an interesting exemption, a male student will be joining us starting from today."

Naruto stepped out from behind the entrance where he had been hiding, dreading this announcement, "Yo, my name is Namikaze Naruto, yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

**AN**

**Nante Omoshiroi no…. hito da = what an interesting…. person.**

**Warui = my bad/sorry**

**Do you want to know why I keep Naruto using honorifics? Cause that's my middle finger to all the Negima authors that make such a fuss about honorifics in their Negima fics, just calling Naruto san is enough to make him retaliate with pranks? Why not let them call him whatever they want until they are comfortable then insist they call him whatever. i know you think I'm probably a very stiff person, but would you like it if someone kept jumping and invading your personal space? Calling someone 'chan' even when you just met her is the Japanese equivalent to that. Especially when the person doesn't like it. if the person is just playing around and trying to lighten the mood like Naruto pulling the stick out Eva's ass or tease Asuna, that's ok. When he meets someone in the class, like the more formal people ; Akira or Mana when they probably seriously wont like it or forces everyone not to call him by honorifics, then no, its pretty much personal space rape and forcing most people out of their comfort zone. Another thing, he is a teacher, them calling him sensei is respect for the position, if he doesn't respect it, its his business but the way you guys portray him forcing everyone to ignore that is pretty much spitting on the position of a teacher. Not that he is much of one anyway.**


	4. Demon's Requiem

**Broken Faith**

**Disclaimer : Don't own anything.**

**Chapter 4**

**Demon's Requiem**

**Warning, Dark Fight at the Bottom.**

The following blast of noise and girls squeeing reached the upper registers and almost caused him to go deaf before he went pale at the incoming trainwreck of female flesh.

Many of the more excitable girls, read Asakura Kazumi and various others jumped at the chance to talk to the hot man meat. Stepping back he activated the precaution he had taken earlier, slamming the door to the car close and causing a pile up on the other side of the door. He felt bad for Negi, the poor guy was buried under there…somewhere…

Behind him he heard Asuna, Haruna and Konoka giggling loudly at his pale face. He only gave them a deadpan stare, "This really isn't funny you know, you try being bait in a train full of testosterone fueled teenage boys." He smirked at their pale faces.

When normality had been restored to well… normal, at least relatively, meaning no one was jumping him this time, he gave his introduction, "As I said earlier, my name is Namikaze Naruto, the dean found me when I had an accident outside Mahora. Due to the accident, a hit and run, I suffered amnesia and could only remember my name and some basic information. The dean was kind enough to let me stay in Mahora for the duration it took me to recover, that is all."

There was another bout of awwws and questions but he mostly ignored it until the blonde silenced everyone again, this time a redhead went for batter up. The girl sidled up to Naruto and wrapped her arms around his biceps, secretly copping a feel, causing a certain orange haired princess to burn on the inside, "Naruto-kun~ my name is Kazumi, how old are you?"

The blonde only frowned before giving the girl a cold look filled with disdain, pulling his arm from the girl's grip, taking a few steps back from her and answered her question stoically, "I am 15 this year I cannot remember the exact date anymore but definitely 15 this year." At this, even Asuna went wide eyed, 15? He looked like 20!

After another round of awwws of pity, someone else shouted a question, a pink haired girl this time, "Where are you from?"

"I cannot remember,"

Another question was shouted, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

This particular questions caused even Asuna to perk up but she immediately sinked back into her seat when she saw that Naruto instead of answering the question was looking at all the girls with a cold and piercing stare.

After a moment of silence in which he had glared at the girl who had asked that question into submission, poor Kazumi, he answered, "I cannot remember, if that is all, I feel tired and want to rest, I am sorry." He headed for the very back of the car and slid into a seat that was unoccupied and dropped his backpack in the other empty seat beside him.

Slumping down into his seat, he took out a fedora he had bought in Harajuku and slid it onto his head to cover his eyes and tried to sleep, although he could hear someone berating the reporter for asking something so insensitive from an invalid like Naruto. Invalid? How did having amnesia count as being an invalid? Suppressing a snort he ignored everything else and tried to continue his nap from earlier. There were some other announcements by Negi and a lot of chatter but he mostly ignored anything that didn't register as a threat in his semi asleep state. He did find it funny though, the swordswoman, according to his senses took avoiding him to the extreme and went out her way to the other end of the train to avoid him.

Perhaps he might have overdone it a little earlier. Just a little.

Nah.

And just like that after a few measly hours of peaceful nap, the noise suddenly took a major upswing. Little girls screaming and what not. Frustrated he extended his senses, and narrowed his eyes under the fedora, and identified the source of the problem : little summoned frogs, no threat whatsoever, but useful as a diversion. Although he had to give the culprit props for sneaking in and doing something like this under his very nose and not even registering on his radar.

Nonetheless, he made no move.

These were just frogs, not his problem. His job was to protect them from danger, frogs damn well didn't qualify as danger. Neither did making sure the teacher completed his assignment from the dean. If the child teacher with such a big reputation couldn't handle a few frogs then….. he might as well quit the job and go back to his mother's bosom.

"Neh, Naruto. Cant you do something about these frogs? Negi went chasing after some weird bird and a letter…its complete chaos here." Surprisingly someone had enough balls after his earlier display to disturb him. He was about to glare at the person when he noticed exactly who was talking to him.

Asuna had nudged him in the side and was talking to him in low tones while the rest of the class tried to catch the frogs. Well those that hadn't passed out yet were at any rate. And just like that, his resolve to be hostile melted. He didn't want to see a disappointed expression on that face, more than anything. He had enough of it in his nightmares. He just muttered an ok, causing the girl to grin at him.

Naruto sighed and laid back in to his chair and tilted the fedora so that Asuna couldn't see his eyes. Gathering his anger at the situation he infused it with his Ki and glared at the scene in front of him, pushing his malicious intent to 'damage' whoever drew his wrath should they not listen to his wishes with pure will power. Under the shadows cast by his fedora onto his face, if one were to look carefully, they would see two dark fire red pools in the darkness. Every frog immediately stopped moving and turned to the source of the pressure as one. As animals they were far more in tune with nature then the average human, and as such, they identified the immediate threat of a great big predator looking at them. They held the gaze of the red eyes for a split second before the frogs conducted a mass exodus from the car, jumping out of any exit they could find, window, door, toilet, anything, and poofed away once they were in safety.

The average humans on the other hand, felt an urge to be silent and stop moving, but only the few had any combat experience and training whatsoever, realized what this feeling was and managed to resist it. The rest however immediately shut up and followed their instinct to behave almost subconsciously, not knowing the source of this feeling. Mana glanced at Kaede and received a nod in return, the boy at the back of the car was impressive, with nary a glance and order was established. Chao grinned, Naruto jiji was strict but always fair and despite his teachings to the contrary had always been a show off. It was obvious he hadn't changed much; even decades later. Ku fei noticed the killing intent immediately but unfortunately was a bit dense and didn't know where it came from or what it meant.

Once everything settled down, Naruto gave a small grunt of acknowledgement to Asuna who was watching wide eyed at everything that had just happened before going back to sleep. Because she had been beside Naruto she hadn't felt a thing. No magic spell was chanted like Negi, no movement, no nothing, and poof, the frogs went ballistic and everyone shut up. What the hell? No more like WHO the hell was Naruto.

Thanking Naruto in a daze she wandered off to find Negi, hopefully he knew something. He was a genius after all.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The rest of the trip was unusually quiet….. even Negi was surprised. However whatever inhibitions the students might have had were totally unleashed when they reached their destination.

Everyone charged out the train and went to celebrate, Naruto gave an amused smirk and followed when he noticed a girl had tripped. Walking up to her, he gave her a hand and bent down to pick up her belongings. With his support the brown haired girl stood up again, and bowed in thanks. He gave a genuine smile in return and continued walking.

He didn't notice Chizuru Naba glowing bright red at the smile he just gave her.

Naruto just followed at the very back of the group, although he didn't like noise, he had to smile at the boisterousness of the group of girls. He did notice a tall dark skinned girl and a squinty eyed girl occasionally glancing at him from the corner of their eyes though.

As he leaned on a pillar and breathed in the fresh Kyoto air. It was far purer then the air in Mahora, something to do with the temple and purity he supposed. As he stood there alone he was suddenly yanked by his right arm, although annoyed by the girl's forwardness, he had to admit he was secretly pleasantly surprised when Asuna dragged him over to stand on her right, while Konoka was on her left for a class picture. Nonetheless, deep down, a dark voice wondered if she would keep trying to make him join the class activities if she exactly what he was.

Unbidden a memory of him and Akane taking a walk near a temple on a starry night so many years ago during one of their vacations before the war appeared in his mind's eye. He was standing here on her right just like this posing for a picture then as well. The temptation to wrap his arms around the Asuna's petite waist and nuzzle her neck while posing for the picture was almost overwhelming and quite frankly, painful. He did the only thing he could, grit his teeth so hard that he could taste copper to remind him that this wasn't Akane and no doubt Asuna would punch him to kingdom come if he did something like that. Once the picture was done, the blonde walked away from the group to calm down and watched the scenery from Kiyomizu temple in a daze, the peaceful sight from so high atop the platform gave him the impression he was far from civilization and took a deep calming breath and somehow he felt Akane's presence beside him, soothing him. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, perhaps this he was torturing himself by reminding himself of her every time something familiar jogged his memory, but he deserved this. This pain and burden was his punishment.

So lost in his memories was he that he didn't notice the shadows flirting around the perimeter, setting up traps to ensnare and sabotage the trip. He didn't notice or even hear the explanation about Noh plays, or the fortune telling stone and the frog pit where Ayaka and a pink haired girl fell in. He just followed the crowd, walking on auto pilot. He did notice that the moment the frogs saw him when they jumped out of the pit they leapt away like the hounds of hell were chasing them. He only snapped back to reality when he realized that he had let his guard down and almost the entire class was drunk. Someone had spiked the third Otowa waterfall with sake and there was hardly anyone that was NOT drunk as a skunk.

Oh wait, the only ones that were drunk were the pedophiles. No biggie.

By now he had also noticed the leftover presence of more than one person hiding in the shadows. It would be prudent to keep his guard up.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto was leaning against a vending machine as Negi finally told Asuna of his task and the obstacles he would be facing while Chamo the ermine was busy spouting his conspiracy theories. When he shot one off about Setsuna the swordswoman as the culprit, Naruto couldn't hold it in anymore and gave a short bark of laughter.

"Wha-whats so funny kinpatsu-niisan?" the ermine asked. The blonde scared him. For a lot of reasons, most that he didn't understand, something to do with her ermine instincts. But he was hired by the dean and thus he was definitely on their side and trustworthy. Right?

"That you think sword girl is the culprit. Call her what you want, lesbian, feminist, S&M fetishist, apron fetishist but the fact remains that she is first and foremost a swordswoman. Her very posture screams honor and nobility. If she wanted to stop the trip, she could have done it earlier in Mahora instead of going through the hassle of doing it now. Even then, if she was serious about stopping you, the swordswoman that she is wouldn't spike the class with sake, she'd challenge you to a straight up duel, feed you your family jewels, leave you at a hospital and go home. End of story.

Asuna blushed at the bodyguard's crude analogy but before anyone could refute his claim Shizuna sensei came up and told them it was almost time for the staff finish bathing, and since Naruto was following Negi, his bath time slot was the same.

Naruto just shrugged and went to onsens, followed by the boy teacher.

The blonde relaxed into the hot water as he let his hair free of its ponytail, curling it around his neck so it didn't get in the way he leaned back on to one of the rocks. The red headed teacher came in after he did and relaxed on a stone opposite from him. "Na-naruto-san, are you sure it isn't Setsuna, before this I already had to fight one student, Evangeline, I don't want to fight another student again. They are all important to me." The small teacher asked.

"Then don't," was the curt reply. "Until you are absolutely sure that she is the culprit, do what you can to find facts that prove that she is innocent. Right now everything you are muddling about is based on nothing more than pure speculation. Facts twisted to suit your theories rather than the way around. An utter waste of time, time which I might add could be spent to prove the girl innocent. Although to be completely honest, it's not my problem until she tries to take your head, or anyone else's head off for that matter."

The little teacher seemed to contemplate the answer given to him and let Naruto relax in silence. That is until the sound of someone stepping into the bath was heard. Negi broken out of his thoughts spun around, "Huh? Who is it at this time, one of the teachers?"

From his position, Naruto could clearly see who had just come in but kept quiet, he had been in here before she did and it wasn't his fault if she neglected to scan the area first like any competent fighter should before bathing. The boy on the other hand was clearly stunned when he peeked over the rocks to see who it was. Although apparently not stunned enough refrain from commenting on the girl's beauty. Little pervert. Then again he would be a liar if he didn't admit she was in good shape.

"Phew…." The sound of the girl relaxing caused the frightened teacher to freeze in position, afraid of the swordswoman's feminine fury.

"If Negi-sensei is indeed a mage…I might need to take action…how troublesome." Naruto was forcibly reminded of the only person in the Konoha 9 that was always stoically on his side of the fence no matter the cost. The thought caused him to crack a smile. However he could see that judging by the clearly panicked expression and the wand in his hand, Negi had already forgotten the blonde's advice and was gearing himself up for a fight.

How troublesome, to quote a friend.

The girl obviously noticed the Negi's sudden movement when she suddenly tensed and immediately threw something at the overhead lights, causing everything to go dark and cloak her nudity.

Good reflexes.

"Who's there!" Setsuna shouted into the darkness.

Naruto couldn't see a thing but he definitely heard the sound of metal rasping against wood, which meant she brought her sword with her into the bathroom. He couldn't hold back a sweat drop at his deduction. What in the world was she doing with a sword in a bath, did she go everywhere with that thing?

"Shinmei ryuu Ougi : Zangan ken!" a wave of energy was released with a swipe of her nodachi, cutting the rock directly in front of her and Naruto's eyes widened, the girl was serious, an inch lower and Negi would be breathing through his scalp, immediately reacting he created a wind blade to deflect the energy wave that was about to disconnect his head from his body and picked up two pebbles. Taking a split second to aim he charged both pebbles with water chakra and shot them both at Negi and Setsuna. The pebbles flew straight and true, water chakra reducing any air resistance and increasing blunt force trauma; hitting the sword and Negi's wand, knocking both from their owner's hands.

Setsuna obviously didn't care and charged forward anyway, her left hand grasping Negi's throat with a chokehold, slamming the boy onto the surface of a rock while her right hand dipped beneath the water line…. Ewww….. pedo bear.

"Don't move! Who are you? And if you don't answer I'll crush and snap it off." Naruto's jaw dropped, this girl had _balls_. And sneaky too. He made a laaarge mental note to be especially careful of his junk around this girl.

Negi was apparently suffering from emotional trauma of having his family jewels squeezed tightly because the only noises he made were some sort squeaking sounds. The sounds seemed enough to alert the swordswoman as to exactly whose balls she was currently crushing in her grip. Naruto couldn't help it, he laughed. Long and hard until he was wheezing and clutching his sides.

When he looked up, Negi was still suffering from BSOD but Setsuna had jumped away from the teacher as far as possible when the sound of laughter had shocked her into reacting, her face red and staring incredulously between at her right hand which happened to be twitching, Negi who was still in a coma and the laughing blonde.

"Bwahahahahaha!" guess who.

"Stop laughing, Kinpatsu-oniisan, shouldn't you be helping Negi?" The ermine tried to stop the blonde's laughter so that something else other than laughter could be heard. When the blonde's laughter died into small chuckles and wheezing noises but seemed content to let everything to play out, the frustrated ermine continued, "Ah! if Kinpatsu oniisan isn't going to help us, we can do this ourselves! Setsuna Sakurazaki, you're the spy from Kansai association out to stop Negi aren't you!"

"Hu-huh? No! that's not true sensei! I'm sensei's ally!"

That was enough to snap Negi out his emotional trauma and he stopped crying in a corner. "Eh? What do you mean by that?" he said.

"I am Setsuna Sakurazaki, of the Shinmei ryuu school, protector of Konoka ojousama." Her tone was pretty regal, even if she was still pretty much naked except for a flimsy towel in front of two guys.

"Yo, Namikaze Naruto, the dean hired me as 3-A's bodyguard, and this little guy which YOU just molested, is a mage tasked to deliver a letter to the leader of the Kansai Magic Association." The girl blushed at the molested comment but continued to put on a brave face. "I'm sorry if I did anything wrong, but I thought you might be someone targeting Konoka ojo-"

The swordswoman was interrupted by a loud scream, the eyes of everyone present was wide open, "is tha-" Naruto started,

"It's from the changing rooms!" Negi continued.

"Its Konoka ojousama and Asuna-san!" and without any further words two of them of them rushed out of the hot springs while the third sighed and jumped into the shadows.

The duo reached the changing rooms and opened it, only to see Asuna and Konoka being stripped by monkeys. "Negi what the hell are these monkeys doing to our clothes," Asuna screamed trying to keep her clothes on. The monkeys then took off Konoka's remaining clothes, her bra and panties, leaving her stark naked on the floor.

"AHH! Se-chan, Negi-kun~ don't look!" Konoka cried. Naruto had the decency to look away at the moment, especially since he could feel killing intent coming from Setsuna. He saw her holding up her blade with a look of fury in her eyes.

Fury of feminine righteousness.

Yep.

"What are you perverted monkeys think you are doing to ojou-sama?" Setsuna threatened.

"Hey hey, Setsuna is that a real sword?" Asuna asked surprised.

"Yes don't attack them! Their just poor monkeys," Negi stopped her from doing anything by latching himself onto her body.

"These are all just low level Shikigami! They will only turn to paper if I cut them up," Setsuna shouted desperately, trying to help her ojousama. Then suddenly a monkey snuck up on the arguing duo and stole Setsuna's towel causing her and Negi to topple over. Negi was on the floor and looked up to see a good view of Setsuna's lower region. Asuna could only stare in shock at what happened.

Then suddenly she remembered what situation she was in barely a second ago and turned to look around.

"Hey the monkeys are getting away with Konoka!" Asuna stated pointing at the door.

Setsuna immediately pushed off the teacher with a cry of "Ojousama! Shinmei ryuu Ougi : Hyakuretsu Ou Kazan!" drawing the great blade with one smooth movement the swordswoman slashed rapidly all around her retainer without even a scratch on Konoka, the monkeys all froze for a second before bursting into a flurry of paper. Chopped shikigamis flew like a blizzard of paper around the two naked girls. Konoka could only watch in awe, "….Oooh."

Behind Setsuna, Naruto dropped into sight and released a flurry of kunais into a tree but was met with the sound of metal meeting wood.

'_Damn, they got away,'_Naruto and Setsuna thought at the same time. "Se-chan," Konoka said from her position. The group looked down and saw her smiling at Setsuna. "I don't know what is going on but thank you Se-chan."

Setsuna blushed and promptly dropped Konoka in the water and ran away. Naruto, Negi, and Asuna gained a rather large sweat drop at the scene. "What was that all about?" Naruto asked.

"Konoka-san just who IS Setsuna-san?" Negi questioned waving his arms frantically. "She calls you oujo-sama and says she is your protector when we talked earlier but suddenly she runs away like that?"

" Konoka, did something happen before with Sakurazaki-san?" Asuna asked.

"Hai. I never really talked to you before about this huh, Asuna. You know, before I came to school and lived with Asuna, I used to live in Kyoto…" Konoka started. "I lived in a big mansion in the mountains. It was always so quiet and lonely. It was because it was secluded I didn't have a single friend."

Naruto grimaced, the old man had apparently left quite a lot of details in his story, not telling her about her heritage was nothing more than the icing on the cake.

The brunette took a deep breath before continuing, "But one day, Kaa-san brought over some guests and along with them was a little girl. It was Se-chan. She was the very first friend I had when I was young. Even at a young age she practiced kendo, and protected me by driving away dogs and helping me when I was in danger. There was this one time I was about to drown, and she did all she can to help me out. In the end we were both saved by adults. She then started to dedicate her time with her training. She became busier and busier that I rarely got to see her. We didn't have time to talk much and then I had to move to Mahora. When it was my first year of middle school I saw Se-chan moved here too. I was happy we were able to meet again but she still didn't talk to me," Konoka started crying, "It was like I did something wrong. Se-chan wouldn't talk to me like she did before."

By now they were already dressed in some light yukata instead of wearing towels, Negi tried to comfort Konoka while Naruto stood at the side stoically. He noticed Asuna wanting to follow Negi's lead to comfort Konoka but occasionally glanced at him worriedly, as if looking for advice when he shook his head to signify this was something Konoka needed to deal with herself.

Konoka stood up suddenly and said, "I'm ok, really, just let me go finish bathing, the three left behind just watched her go when Negi suddenly stood up and declared he needed to talk to Setsuna leaving Asuna and Naruto behind.

"Was it alright to leave her alone?"

Naruto nodded, "I have twenty clones circling the perimeter, at the moment nothing will get into the hotel."

"Why didn't you want me to talk to Konoka earlier?" Asuna asked.

"This is something she needed to come to deal with herself. This is something that was so deep seated that she didn't even tell you, her best friend of so many years, trying to comfort her about it and telling her everything will be fine would be spitting on that bond of friendship between her and Setsuna as well as nothing more than patronizing her. And she would know it. if there really isn't anything to repair that bond, then she has to find that out herself, or she will never grow up and leave the past where it belongs"

For a moment, Naruto thought about a black haired guy, the same age as him with onyx black eyes. He felt like snorting, never grow up indeed. But unlike him and Sasuke, where he had been chasing nothing but dreams, it was clear Konoka and Setsuna were close, there was just something stopping them from being clear about their feelings for each other.

"Heeeh, for a 15 year old, you're pretty mature."

"And you are pretty immature." Asuna wanted to blow up at the blonde but when she saw the small smile he had on his face she just pouted causing his smile to widen even more.

"Come on, lets go find Negi, Konoka is safe for now." The bodyguard beckoned Asuna to follow him to their room.

When the duo reached the room they found Setsuna lecturing Negi about the intricacies of Eastern mageship, Zenki, Goki, and the Shinmei Ryuu swordsmen. Naruto just sat back and relaxed he already knew everything the swordswoman was saying anyway. That and at the moment he was suffering from a slight migraine that had developed because he had one clone following each group the entire day, he was hired to guard 3-A after all, not just this particular group and the hourly feedback from each clone as they made and dispelled a Kage Bunshin to send the message back was getting annoying.

Then something the black haired girl said caught his attention, "Wait, you said the Eastern mages are deeply tied to the Shinmei Ryuu Swordsmen of Kyoto, but you're from Kyoto and yet you're fighting against them? And does that mean we will be facing more Shinmei Ryuu users that are as strong, if not stronger than you?" the bodyguard tried to clarify.

"Yes you can say that," Setsuna sighed. "They would consider me a traitor for leaving Kyoto. But I wanted to protect Konoka-ojou-sama and that is all that matters. As long as I can help her out I am satisfied." She felt a hand on her head and saw Naruto smiling down on her.

"It's good to see you wanting to protect Konoka-san," Naruto smiled. "You got my support Setsuna-san."

"Right. Seeing as you don't really hate Konoka I'm glad. A friend of my friend is a friend right?" Asuna said agreeing with Naruto.

"Namikaze-san, Kagurazaka-san….."

Naruto laughed out loud this time, "I don't mind the –san, but please, don't call me by my family name, it sounds really weird."

Negi ran up and grabbed the Asuna and Setsuna's hands and put them into a pile. "As of now 3-A's guardian angels are formed. We will protect the group the class from the Kansai Magic Association!"

All three of them turned simultaneously and gave 3-A's bodyguard the puppy dog eyes, even Setsuna.

He returned it with a dry stare.

When they didn't back down he gave a sigh and a small smile, "Change the name and I might think about it."

Negi and Asuna started cheering while Setsuna gave the bodyguard a deep bow in gratitude for helping. Naruto just waved off the bow and muttered something about _part of the job description anyway._

"Me and Negi can patrol the outside," Naruto said walking outside with Negi. "Asuna-san and Setsuna-san, it would be more appropriate if you girls handle the rooms." The girls nodded and turned inside.

Naruto separated from the ermine and mage duo to jump to somewhere a high vantage point and clear view of any main entrances that Negi wasn't patrolling so that he could watch for anyone coming in while meditating. That and he should probably relay today's happenings to the dean.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Asuna and Setsuna reached group five's sleeping quarters. Haruna, Nodoka and Konoka were asleep on the floor while Yue was sleeping soundly on a chair. "Well it seems like everyone fell asleep before me," Asuna said with a sweat drop.

"I'm going to patrol the hallways," Setsuna said.

"Let's switch shifts later on okay," Asuna yawned. "I'll keep a watch on Konoka."

"Thank you, I'll be going now."

"Ah…? who is it? Asuna?" Konoka said dazed.

"Eh? Konoka, gomen, did I wake you?" Asuna asked. Konoka groggily got up and drunkenly made her way to the door but was interrupted by Asuna's question, "Konoka where are you going?"

"Toilet." was the only response Asuna received.

"Well…. if it is the toilet it can't be helped."

Konoka walked towards the bathroom and opened it. in her groggy state, her mind barely registered a giant monkey inside sitting on the toilet bowl and all she could do was sweatdrop.

"I'm still using it," the lady in the monkey costume said with an eerie voice before she jumped forward and put a handkerchief soaked in chloroform on Konoka's mouth. "Just kidding!" she then dragged Konoka into bath room and shut the door.

A few minutes had passed since Konoka had gone to the bathroom, and Asuna was getting worried. "She's taking pretty long time in the bathroom."

"Mmmrgh, I have to use the bath room too," Yue said walking out of the room with Asuna. When they reached the girl's toilet, Yue immediately knocked on the door and cried out, "Hey Konoka are you done yet?"

"Sorry, I'm still using it!" Konoka's voice replied from inside the bathroom.

Asuna shrugged at Yue and they both returned to their room to wait a bit longer but suddenly Setsuna came bursting into the room.

"Kagurazaka-san! where is Konoka-ojou-sama?" the swordswoman shouted.

"She's in the bathroom," Asuna said. She was trying to help Yue control her bladder, not that it helped because Yue was practically vibrating in one spot from the urgent need to go potty.

"How long has it been?"

"Ten minutes!" Yue said struggling to get the words out through her gritted teeth. "We both drank from the spring earlier, just please make her hurry up."

"Konoka you _are_in there right?" Asuna asked knocking on the door.

"I'm still using it," came the reply.

"Konoka-san, whatever you are doing, hurry up! I can't hold on much longer!" Yue said banging on the door.

"I'm still using it." Yue face faulted. She knocked on the door again, her eyes filled with anime tears, she desperately needed to go..NOW but received the exact same words in reply.

"I'm approaching my limit…" Yue mumbled towards the door.

"Something doesn't seem right," Setsuna said.

"I agree," Asuna said. They heard the door bang, and saw that Yue had kicked it open. Inside was just a seal that kept repeating the words, "I'm still using it." with Konoka's voice.

"We've been had!" "W-wh-what do we do!"

"**I DON'T CARE WHAT THE HELL YOU GIRLS DO! JUST LET ME USE THE DAMN BATHROOM!"** Yue shouted kicking the two girls out of the room.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto's eyes snapped wide open and he breathed out, "Shit."

The dean on the other side of the card who had been listening to the summary was immediately alert, _"What is it Naruto-kun?"_

"_Some of my clones were just destroyed and alerted me to something, the culprit is someone wearing a large Monkey suit and obviously uses Monkey shikigamis. We were going about this thing the wrong way, she was never outside in the first place but already inside the hotel. The woman just killed a few more of my clones, I have to go jiji."_

"_Hurry, Naruto, please don't let an old man's mistakes burden his granddaughter."_

"_I can't promise anything anymore, but I'll try."_

"_Thank you…"_

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"So let me get this straight, this pactio card lets me one : Communicate with a partner telepathically, two : summon my partner to me, and three : Activate their abilities and tools?"

"Yeap! Now let's test it out aniki," Chamo said happily.

"Okay, I think I'll talk to Asuna-san telepathically," Negi chirped with as much enthusiasm. "Hello Asuna-san? How come I can't hear her voice?" the mage looked at his card with disappointment.

"Wouldn't a cell phone be better then?" Negi asked while looking at the ermine. At that moment Negi's actual cell phone went off.

"Negi we got trouble! Konoka's been kidnapped! What should we do!" Asuna said… no shouted into the receiver.

"What mage uses a cell phone," Chamo cried with anime tears.

"Wait, Konoka-chan has been kidnapped!" Negi was shocked.

Suddenly Negi's call was interrupted by Chamo frantically pulling on his sleeve, "Ano, Aniki, what's that?" Chamo asked pointing at the oncoming figure shadowing the moon. The figure landed with a crash and revealed to be the giant monkey costume from before. In her hands was Konoka.

"What are you doing with Konoka?"

"Arara, aren't you that little cute mage I ran into at the hotel?," the monkey lady said. "Nevermind, you're too weak to do anything about this anyway, Bye!" She then jumped off into the night holding Konoka, but didn't leave without giving Negi presents. A whole bundle of Monkey shikigami seemed to swarm about Negi stopping him from casting his spells properly.

"Get back here with Konoka! Ras Tel Ma Scir MMMFF" Negi was interrupted as he chanted. In the end he was saved by Setsuna who had just arrived with Asuna and cut away all the shikigami with her giant blade.

"Where is that Monkey Mage Negi-sensei!"

"She got away." Negi so disappointed in himself that he couldn't bring himself to look into Setsuna's eyes.

"STOP moping Negi, you can mope after we're done kicking that Monkey's butt!" Asuna shouted.

"You're right. We can't let these bastards have her." Setsuna and Negi nodded. Asuna suddenly realized something, Naruto was missing. "Hey where is Naruto, wasn't he supposed to be with you Negi?"

"Um… he was taking care of the opposite side of the hotel, I don't think he knows Konoka was kidnapped. Anyway we don't have time to go back and call him, we have to go NOW!"

If Setsuna or Asuna were surprised at Negi's tone they didn't show it, but started running in the direction which the Monkey lady left.

Although Asuna took a glance back, '_Where are you blondie, you said you'd help us, were you lying to me?'_

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Railway station**

The trio had finally chased the Monkey lady till the railway station and the lady had taken off her monkey suit to fight them.

"We've caught up, you have no where left to run Monkey lady!" Asuna shouted while Setsuna charged ahead without a word.

The lady just summoned two shikigami, a bear and a monkey, both exponentially more powerful then the small monkey shikigami she had been throwing at the trio the while time. The bear and monkey both attacked Setsuna and it was obvious that she was outmatched by the two opponents.

"Asuna go help her!" Negi shouted, "Get ready, Sis mea pars per centum octoginta secundas : Ministra Negii Cagurazaca Asuna!"

Asuna grimaced abit at the feeling of magic flooding her body and she felt a lot stronger. She leapt forward and started fighting the monkey, pushing it away from Setsuna, allowing the swordswoman to get a hit in and push the bear away from her. Even with her style and a deep gash down the bear's front, it wasn't enough to dispel the shikigami.

The lady frowned at the power the orange haired girl suddenly displayed, '_So that's a partner for the western mages…'_

"Aniki, use the third option now," Chamo the ermine declared, Negi nodded and shouted so Asuna could hear him while battling, "Asuna-san, I'm bringing out a special artifact only you can use, its called the **Hamanotsurugi, **please accept it!"

"A weapon? Alright, give it to me Negi!"

Asuna set her jaw and kept fighting, stopping the Monkey from attacking Negi.

"Excerceas Potentum Cagurazaka Asuna : Ensis Enxorcizans!"

A bright glow suddenly appeared in Asuna's hands and a giant fan with a unique hilt formed from the bright light, "Wha-what? This is it? This is just a normal fan Negi, aargh! There's no helping it, here I come!"

"Setsuna, you go ahead, I'll take care of the two shikigamis."

Setsuna who was kneeling on the ground, slightly scuffed behind Asuna widened her eyes in surprise before setting her jaw and both the girls charged at the eastern Mage.

Naruto had been following the trio the whole way, was hiding in the shadows and opted not to get involved and let them gain combat experience and get stronger on their own as per his agreement with the dean. The blonde had already activated his _pactio, _the cloak helping him blend in with the shadows. But many times he had to clench his jaw to stop himself from blowing through the many obstacles the eastern mage seemed sooo fond of throwing at the Guardian trio. Even now he was barely stopping himself from dashing forward and obliterating the two shikigami to help the trio. It was against his principles to let the underdogs be bullied.

Setsuna dashed low on the ground while Asuna engaged the two shikigami's successfully obliterating the monkey with one hit. Although that was more because the monkey had stubby little hands and couldn't block the hit in time rather than lack of skill and one time was all it needed for the Magic Cancel **Hamanotsurugi**'s ability to activate, not that anyone there knew it yet.

The bear was able to dodge the attack.

Setsuna continued dashing forward and was about to attack the mage when she saw the mage smile, suddenly another blur appeared and Setsuna was forced to block an overhead strike from a katana but she didn't expect her opponent to suddenly swipe at her with a small tanto in her off hand scoring a thin gash on Setsuna's chest. The only reason it wasn't deeper was because Setsuna had seen the glint of an extra weapon in time and kicked the newcomer in the stomach to flip herself backwards to minimize the damage.

Setsuna retreated back beside Asuna while the bear retreated beside the newcomer. Everyone was stunned by the new appearance, a blond girl in a Gothic lolita dress.

The girl got up and dusted herself off. In her hand were a tanto in her left hand and an ordinary katana in her right.

"Owwie. I think I hurt my head. Hello nice to meet you, I'm from the Shinmei-Ryuu! My name is Tsukuyomi!" She stared at the two then looked at Negi. "You're pretty cute." Negi frowned at the weird comment. She then turned to Setsuna, "You must be my senpai. But I have been assigned to protect Chigusa-san so I have to take this seriously."

"To send a body guard like you… the Shinmei-Ryuu must be short on people," Setsuna said frowning.

"You'll get hurt if you underestimate her. Well I'll leave things to you Tsukuyomi-chan," the monkey lady said smirking.

"Shall we begin?" Tsukuyomi asked. "Please go easy on me." She went to attack Setsuna while Asuna engaged the bear, while Asuna was faster and had longer reach, the bear was more experienced at fighting and dodged all her hits before hitting back at the hole's in her guard.

Setsuna danced with the newcomer but as time passed it was obvious that the smaller girl was far faster than Setsuna and was slowly pushing Setsuna back with the flexibility her style afforded her. Setsuna's style and two handed sword gave her more power but at the cost of agility, something she was seriously beginning to regret.

"Kukuku, the Shinmei Ryuu style traditionally favors two handed big swords, but Tsukuyomi-chan is special. It must be hard for you to swing that big thing around to defend against the smaller but faster and precise attacks that Tsukuy-"

The eastern mage was interrupted when a shout of "Sattica Magica Aer Capture!" and several bolts of green energy flew at her,

"Ahhh crap, I forgot there's still that chibi mage!"

"Too late!"

"Somebody Help me!" the mage instinctively used Konoka's body as a shield, causing Negi's eyes to widen and immediately threw all his energy in to divert all the bolts of energy to the side and miss Chigusa entirely.

The eastern mage opened one of her eyes cautiously from behind Konoka, "Arara?"

Negi mean while was going ballistic, "AH! Its no fair, using Konoka like that!" And unseen to everyone there, Naruto had begun clenching his hand so tightly that it was bleeding, he despised this kind of tactics.

"Haa~n, .. I see… I know your type of people. You back off as soon as it looks like the hostage is about to be captured. Tsukuyomi, Kuma! Come back!"

Both the blonde gothic Lolita girl and the bear immediately pushed and kicked their opponents away from them before retreating to Chigusa's side.

"Hehehehe, now that you can't attack me, I'll have you deal with the third of my charms." She then threw the charm and it exploded into flames creating the kanji for great (dai). "Those flames will kill off any normal person. This is goodbye gakis."

"Wait! Why are you doing this, what are you planning on doing to Konoka!" Asuna shouted, even from this position the heat from the fire was almost unbearable.

"Kukukuku, I need her power. This girl has amazing magical reserves. I guess I'll use her like this as an innocent meat shield. And when the time comes, I'll use spells and drugs to force her to obey me. She'll be nothing more than a puppet that our every word and provide the impetus I need to destroy the western mages!"

Naruto went blank.

In front of him was someone, who by any definition of the word had the exact same purpose as someone who had plagued his entire life in Konoha with misfortune. To enslave a powerful source of energy and bring about conflict.

He had to laugh at the irony. And so he laughed. Irony that he met someone with Akane's face. Then he meets another who has the exact same goal albeit not on the same scale as Madara Uchiha. Screw his orders, the bitch was dead. The phrase history is nothing but a waltz, a requiem for all of time was never truer.

"Well, looks like we win this time, see you later you green bottomed little gakis." The mage couldn't help but taunt them and see them stew in their own helplessness.

Setsuna, Asuna and Negi who had been horrified by the woman's cruel and inhumane ideals suddenly felt a killing intent the size of which they had never felt before. Even worse, the killing intent was accompanied by an eerie laugh that echoed throughout the entire tunnel.

Naruto was pulling it, pulling every last bit of energy he had, drawing even from the bottom, he wanted, no needed to kill the person at the top of these stairs. Unknown to him, the Totsuka Tsurugi contained in a seal on his body, cracked slightly.

And Kami granted his wish, his body exploded in red youki and his gloves tore, replaced by huge claws. The claws dug into his flesh since his fists were still clenched.

And he walked out from the shadows like a nightmarish monstrosity, cloaked in black, blank mask with red coals glowing in the eye holes. His body almost hunched over in animalistic instinct with what looked like a sniper rifle of all things strapped to his back.

Everyone on the battlefield froze, not knowing exactly what was it that just walked out from the shadows. Whatever it was it was the source of that grating laughter and sickening killing intent.

And then it roared and walked forward faster and faster. The trio immediately tensed, they didn't know what they could do against this nightmare but they couldn't run away and let the eastern mage get away with Konoka.

They needn't have worried though; the being completely ignored them, walking with shuffling footsteps almost drunkenly. Then the thing walked right into the fire.

And even the fire ran away from this thing, the fire before him split apart from pure air pressure exerted when the being swung his hand in a vertical manner. It shuffled forwards, the red eyes flowing brighter and brighter.

Chigusa was terrified, this thing, looked human but it sure as hell wasn't human. "What are you two idiots waiting for! Kill that thing!"

The bear, stupidly lumbered forwards while Tsukuyomi frowned by followed in the wake of the bear's footsteps anyway. They charged at the thing, the bear on the ground and Tsukuyomi using the bear's back as a platform jumped up to perform an overhead strike with Zanganken. Chigusa started chanting the strongest spell she could.

The thing just moved. One hand plunged into the bear and ripped it in half violently before leaning backwards to avoid the downwards blade before pivoting on the spot and his booted heel was introduced to a stomach covered in gothic Lolita clothes.

Tsukuyomi's sword missed by barely centimeters and before she could hit the ground to jump back out of the demon's range she was kicked with insane force. The watchers only saw a blur as the masked being kicked Tsukuyomi, one moment her body was on the receiving end of a vicious roundhouse kick, the next she was buried foot deep in the concrete behind Chigusa. Tsukuyomi coughed out blood as she sat stuck in the wall like a folded lawn chair. She could feel it, at least 5 broken ribs, anything less and she'd start betting on race horses. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was the black cloaked monster advancing on Chigusa.

"Wha-What have you done! What demon did you western mages summon from beyond the grave?"

"Summon?" this was the first time the monster spoke, and everyone flinched. It sounded raspy, like metal screeching on metal.

"They didn't summon me, people like you did, people like you that just crave destruction for your so called justice. Your intentions to abuse that girl's power summoned me. And today you die."

The eastern mage immediately unleashed her most powerful offensive spell, Naruto couldn't hear it over the bloodlust clouding his mind. He just took it square to the face.

Chigusa's was almost comical in that it showed so much hope that she had conquered a demon when her most powerful and longest spell hit the demon's face. The demon seemed to fall backwards until he was almost parallel to the ground when he stopped. The demon's body started moving upwards again in a parody of undeath. The hope in her face shattered like fragile glass, and it dawned on her that this thing wasn't playing around. It really was going to kill her and tear her body asunder causing her as much pain as he could before he swallowed her whole.

She screamed and threw Konoka's body at the demon, hoping to Kami that at least it would let her and Tsukuyomi get away. The demon caught the sleeping girl gently, so much so that the contrast was almost funny. Passing the girl gently to a clone which laid the sleeping girl on a safe bit of floor he turned around and underneath the mask Naruto frowned, like Madara this person was a cockroach that was almost impossible to kill and everytime they got away, they would come back with even more twisted plans.

That was something he couldn't afford.

Reaching behind his back, he unsealed the great Totsuka no Tsurugi making it seem as though he had pulled the sword from pocket dimension, twirling it around he turned it point first and threw it like a javelin. The sniper rifle would probably be more effective, but he still had no clue how to aim that thing.

Chigusa kept running, one of her shikigamis was carrying the unconscious Tsukuyomi when time seemed to stop moving and her legs refused to move when she felt like a truck and run straight into her from behind. Looking down she saw why, she had a great sword piercing her abdomen vertically.

Naruto yanked on the chakra chain he had attached and swung it around like some gruesome anchor, Chigusa attached to the other end, skewered on the sword, he swung it around and slashed downwards, intent on smashing the woman 10 feet straight into concrete, headfirst.

The resulting boom of concrete and dust was enormous.

From behind the terrified trio watched as the demon yanked the blood covered sword back into his hands and his head cocked as though confused. Reacting on pure instinct the demon suddenly spun on its feet, avoiding several stone spears.

"Ah…. You had an accomplice waiting in the shadows. Pity." There it was, the grating voice again.

A top the roofs, Chigusa cradled in Fate's arms looked down to see the cloaked thing standing in the middle of flames unharmed as that blank mask stared back like some vision of a true demon in hell waiting for its next meal. Then she saw nothing as Fate teleported away and she fainted.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Asuna and the gang didn't know what to say. The demon that stood in the middle of the flames with its back to them was brutal. Very much so. They were terrified of that thing in front of them.

But the way he had handled Konoka so gently and his words about summoning. They didn't know what to think. They just waited for that thing to say something now that they were the only ones left.

Naruto gripped his mask and pulled it off. The blood from his palms had smeared across the white porcelain mask. Wearily he walked out of to the fire towards Konoka, the others seeing where he was headed immediately tensed again and started running forward, demon or no demon, they weren't going to leave her to it's mercy.

They didn't have to rush since they were so far away and the so called demon reached Konoka first. But it did what no one was expecting. It turned around and they stopped dead in their tracks, his features as clear as day, the 'demon' slumped down beside Konoka and called "Abeat." and his cloak as well as that mask disappeared. The mask didn't look remotely demonic, but the blankness unnerved anyone that looked at it and the added smear of blood just made it worse.

The 'demon's normally springy and silky blonde hair seemed like it was wilting, along with his entirely body that seemed to emanate too much tiredness and exhaustion for a body than a body had any right to emanate.

Naruto looked up into his probably former by now, comrades' gobsmacked expressions and chuckled bitterly. "Guess I got some things to explain huh?"

Negi would never admit it, but Chamo's exclamation after that statement that fateful night was probably the most accurate thing he had ever heard.

"What the fuck?"

**AN**

**Facing my final exams in exactly 2 weeks so i was studyng, when i lose concentration i took some time between bursts to write this thing as a way to relax, like right now, i was stoned out of my head after staring at the computer for 5 hours straight and couldnt get anything else so i finished the touch ups on this chapter and decided to publish it. BWAHAHAHA i'm going to fail T^T... but dont get your hopes up for any stable updates until at least february next year. my schedule is bushed for my final year of uni.**

**this chapter was originally part of the one from yesterday but it was too long.**

**Btw, did ANYBODY see that bullshit Kishimoto is pulling out his ass in the latest Naruto? Sharingan, Rinnegan anda freaking comet? over power much? i really wonder if Kishi has some secret crush on another guy whose name rhymes with Uchiha? i mean come on, so many different levels and suddenly Rinnnegan equals Sharingan, which means Sasuke will somehow get Rinnegan later on because we all know Kishi is Sasuke's fanboy while Naruto gets a half assed upgrade from a lack luster Kyuubi fight. You have to wonder, if he drew this manga based on himself as Naruto, while his god damn love interest is Sasuke, because in my opinion, Naruto is taking it up the ass all the time, that and he totally ignores two confessions so that he can confess to Sasuke lol. i mean... that i die you die thing, thats pretty much a glorified confession isnt it? similar to a lover's suicide lol. you know, that thing where two lovers embrace and jump off a cliff.**

* * *

**AN 2**

**Alicel  
2011-10-23 . chapter 4**

Forgot to log in. Anyway i hope your not gonna have naruto explain everything this early. That would be so annoying. I mean seriously, why should he? Whatever happened to the word 'secrets'? Did it got pregnant by sasgay? That is the problem in most xover fics.

**What is it with you people complaining about Naruto spilling his guts out to other people? i think this is the fourth or fifth review complaining about the exact same thing. didnt i already say wait till i update before you judge? even if that wasnt the case, have some god damn faith, i really dont like stories where the characters seem all artificial, overpowered without reason, and somehow has precognition (IE: the writers already read the manga and knew what happened, in turn so do their characters). do you really think i would make the same mistake? at least i wouldnt do it knowingly, if i do, please scold my ass off. next, i wasnt complaining about Madara's power level or anything of the sort, i was commenting on the amount of attention Kishi gives the Uchihas and all the gamebreaker dojutsu skills they have. the title of the manga is Naruto, and what does he get? an upgrade that runs out of gas mid battle and makes him look like a monkey with golden fur. the jumpsuit does not help.**


	5. Kisses and Flutes 1

**Broken Faith**

**Disclaimer : Don't own anything.**

**Chapter 5**

_**Kisses and Flutes 1**_

Everything hurt like mad.

Her legs, her arms, her chest, her head.

Chigusa opened her eyes to see a dark ceiling.

She felt like the whole world was spinning around her when a dark blob appeared in her field of vision, she immediately focused on it. Anything to stop the spinning.

_Yo… lu… d..e …._

"Wh…wha?" The blob seemed to be speaking and she tried to reply but her throat didn't seem to be working. but she couldn't hear what was being said properly until the blob seemed to glow blue and the pain receeded.

"You're lucky to be alive Chigusa-san." The blob she had seen solidified into a hand belonging a mercenary she had hired. Fate Averruncus. He was casting a healing spell of some sort.

Chigusa opened her throat to reply and barely managed a weak, "Wha…what happened?"

"We were set upon by some kind of demon when you almost successfully kidnapped the Eishun girl. In fact, if you weren't such a powerful mage you wouldn't be alive right now. Because a mage's barrier is proportionate to the mage's own power, your barrier stopped the sword enough that it _just _pierced you. Otherwise it would have bisected you in half completely."

The injured mage felt bile and fear rise in her throat at the near miss and Fate's very clinical and monotone voice that described her near death experience.

"You won't be able to move for at least one day, even with my advanced healing skills and affinity to water spells."

Chigusa could only nod, she needed information.

She needed to know what that demon was last night.

She needed to know how to avoid that thing.

Gesturing for something to write with since her throat seemed to be clamped up, whether from fear or pain is arguable, she ordered the rest of her team to put 3-A on surveillance. Especially that teacher and the Eishun girl since the demon seemed to be on good terms with them. Or at least it wasn't actively throwing a 6 foot hunk of metal at them.

Meanwhile she would have to check her archives and any source of information she had on demonology about demons that took humanoid forms.

Demons were notoriously finicky, some required the whole works, pentagram, candle, etc, before it would even deign to listen, some could be summoned through nothing more than a strong will and desire in a certain place. She was sure that something had happened last night to fit the summoning sequence, and she was desperate to avoid it.

*******Broken Faith********

It was early in the morning and a certain blonde felt like crap. Not only was his cover busted last night, using demonic youki when his body couldn't handle it naturally resulted in busted muscles and some old injuries reopening which didn't heal like it did in Konoha. Even worse, before he had gone on this mission, he was working with a theoretical glass wall of 40% of his max reserves since no matter how long he rested, it wouldn't go beyond that.

Now in Kyoto he was working with barely 30%, probably 25%.

Since the stupid tree wasn't around to drain him, the sword seemed to pick up the slack and drained him of almost everything he regained since last night. Right now he felt like he did when he was 12. Weak and useless.

He propped himself up on the wall of his and Negi's room. Negi had already gone downstairs for breakfast or something. Unsealing a first aid kit, he slowly spread a mixture of muscle relaxants and some other herbs on a gauze. Quietly the blonde tried to replace the bandages from last night and wrap the new gauze around his chest and back as well as his right arm, he had torn a few muscles when he threw that sword like a javelin last night.

He was still struggling when he felt a cool hand press itself on his back and pull the gauze from his fingers. Naruto stiffened, he hadn't noticed anyone coming in and berated himself for being careless. "Who is it?"

There was no answer for awhile other then the cool fingers busy wrapping the gauze around him when he inhaled the scent of oranges and chocolate and the tinkle of bells.

"Stop struggling, you're making it harder for me to do this properly."

Asuna.

Naruto snorted.

"Why didn't you tell us you would get hurt this badly because of that power?"

Naruto stiffened as the conversation he had with Asuna, Negi and Setsuna came to mind from last night.

_**Flashback**_

"_What the fuck?"_

"_Keep it down rodent, the fire's already attracting attention, we need to get out of here before we talk."_

_The 3 younger ones looked at each other before nodding simultaneously. Naruto bent to pick up Konoka but was stopped by Negi and Setsuna, both of whom were looking at him warily and picked Konoka up themselves._

_Inwardly Naruto sighed, he was expecting it, but it didn't diminish the pain every time it happened. Besides it would make cooperation harder. Outwardly he kept his face blank and he walked in front of the three girls and one boy in a gesture of faith._

_A few minutes later they had avoided the gathering crowd and reached an alley nearby their hotel before Asuna, who had been characteristically quiet spoke up, "I think we're far enough, its time you tell us what happened back there? That…." Asuna seemed to have difficulty expressing the words, "That demonic feeling, that was you wasn't it?"_

"_Yeah."_

_Negi immediately drew his staff and pointed it at him in readiness while Setsuna tensed but didn't do anything outwardly. Her face as blank as the wall she was leaning against._

_Asuna seemed to be undecided and struggling with something._

_Naruto propped himself on the wall opposite the tense two while the third seemed to be having some sort of internal struggle. "In short, I'm not exactly a demon, but it gets technical enough that it doesn't matter, so I'm basically a half demon. When I get angry I lose control of myself a bit like you saw back there."_

_Negi spoke this time, his staff still unwaveringly pointed at Naruto while the ermine remained quiet but the expression on his furry snout showed that he seemed to know something the others didn't. _

"_What's a half demon doing in Mahora? More specifically in this class? Do you mean my students and I danger?"_

_Naruto shrugged, "I came from a human village, and I was exiled for being a half demon. I was wandering around lost and starving when the dean found me half dead. My being a bodyguard here is just so I can repay the debt of gratitude."_

_The blonde flicked a card out of his pocket, "If you don't believe me, this is a pactio card I made with the Dean, his name is the back of this card. Go ahead look for yourselves. The mask and trenchcoat you saw earlier are a part of the pactio."_

_Negi cautiously took the card from Naruto's fingers before glancing at it back and front with one eye, the other steadily trained on Naruto before passing it to Setsuna._

_Once the card had made its rounds, Negi looked around to see if anybody was dissatisfied. Giving it back to Naruto, he lowered the staff, I'm sorry for being so harsh…..but I had some bad experience with demons…." Negi trailed off and Naruto didn't push, he didn't really care._

_Setsuna on the other hand was still quiet, but there was a strange respect in her expression, and she seemed more friendly. _

_Asuna was still struggling with something._

_Naruto waved his hand at the hotel behind them, you guys go back to the hotel and clean up, I need to set some seals to secure the perimeter. Negi nodded and smiled trustingly before dragging the girls along, one unconscious Konoka between him and Setsuna._

_Naruto watched them until they were out of sight before he collapsed, the wall was his only support. He grimaced and lifted the black jacket he was wearing, thanking the gods that the male uniform was black, otherwise there would've been a truck load of fuss and trouble._

_He was bleeding from the side._

_Without Akane's consciousness sealed in him to regulate the Youki, using it went from 'painful but not dangerous' to 'potentially life threatening'. It was one reason he trained to hard to take down Madara, after Akane had been taken from him, he had lost the ability to use his Sealed Hatred form or Tailed Beast Shroud effectively, leaving him with nothing but the Rinnegan, the Totsuka no Tsurugi and his own wits._

_He sat there for a few quiet minutes, before forming a few clones. With a few orders, the original started limping to the hotel._

**End Flashback**

"How did you know it was the power and not something else? And how did you even know I was hurt?"

It was Asuna's turn to snort, "You showed up from nowhere leaking that weird aura, curb stomped everyone on the opposite team, gave a speech and then threw a huge ass sword. They didn't even get near enough to scratch you and yet you're hurt like a truck ran over you. It's obvious isn't it? Oh and you were limping a bit yesterday night, so I figured, boys being boys, you were probably hiding the injury due to some stupid pride. Honestly, boys are so stupid."

Naruto glanced behind him to look at Asuna, "You've been practicing with that flute haven't you?"

Asuna gaped at him before blushing, "Wha-what does that have to do with anything?"

"One week ago, when I met you, you were nowhere as observant as you are now, plus it's easier to think nowadays isn't it?"

Even though she was behind him, and couldn't see it, she could almost hear and feel the smirk coming off the blonde in waves, causing her to glower at him uselessly.

"When you met me one week ago, I was half asleep!" Asuna replied with an indignant tone before poking one of his wrapped injuries

"Ow! Uhuh, keep telling yourself that," Asuna started poking his wounds again, a fire red blush on her face, "Ow!, Hey! That's mean! Stop it!"

Naruto lunged at Asuna and started to tickle her to stop her from poking his wounds.

"Bwahahaha, stop it! we're going to be late Naruto! Stop it!" Asuna rolled around on the floor trying to buck Naruto off so that he would stop tickling her.

After a few moments the two rolling on the floor came to a stop, faces flushed from laughing too much, unknowingly Naruto had one arm wrapped around her waist as they lay on the floor. Their faces so close Asuna could see the individual wrinkles and Naruto's piercing sapphire eyes up close. It saddened her to know that despite appearing to be carefree and laidback, the wrinkles told a different story of who Naruto truly was.

Without realizing it, she had lifted one hand to caress the whisker marks softly, causing Naruto's eyes to go half lidded and his arm instinctively brought their bodies closer.

She was so preoccupied with his whiskers that she almost didn't hear the soft question that showed her how vulnerable the blonde truly was, "Why aren't you scared? In all the ways that mattered, I'm a half demon. Even Negi and Setsuna was afraid of me."

Asuna blushed when the question snapped her back to reality and she averted her eyes from the piercing blue stare that pinned her down. Her voice was low and soft, but firm, "You promised to help me, Negi and Setsuna. I somehow knew you wouldn't break that promise. We're the Guardians of 3-A, remember?"

"Ah, that's a promise of a lifetime. If nothing else, then because of the faith of you showed in me last night, believe it."

Asuna giggled, and they relaxed in each other's arms.

Until It hit Asuna that the position their bodies were in was extremely close and extremely easy to cause misunderstandings and didn't she like Takahata-sensei?

Almost jumping out of Naruto's one armed embrace around her waist, she started straightening her clothes, her back to Naruto in order to hide the atomic blush she now had in her face.

What was wrong with her? She was acting like some fool with somebody she only met a handful of times.

She didn't see the disappointment that flashed momentarily across Naruto's face. Clearing her throat once she was done straightening her clothes she spoke to the prone blonde still lying on the floor, "I brought you breakfast, the busses leave to Nara in one hour, Negi is already downstairs getting ready. I'll see you later." she almost dashed to the door in her hurry to leave the embarrassing situation.

Nsruto was left in the dark, one hand lying across his eyes and gave a deep sigh and a strangled chuckle. He was being selfish, for those few precious minutes, she was in his arms, and it felt like Akane was with him again.

Like the time where he tickled and rolled in the meadows with her.

Asuna didn't deserve that.

Pushing himself up with his good hand he pulled the breakfast tray close and started to eat.

*******Broken Faith********

Once he was done he dressed into a pair of black slacks, a white shirt and a black undershirt with some difficulty before walking downstairs where he found Negi being mobbed by girls that wanted him to join their group for today's outing. Leaning against one of the pillars to soothe his stiff body, he stood back to watch the festivities and hyperactive girls jumping around with a slight smile. Until he felt a presence approach him from behind.

He glanced around to see the dark skinned tall girl. Giving her a nod of acknowledgement he continued to watch the girls pile into busses.

"We haven't been introduced, Mana Tatsumiya, seat 18 of class 3-A."

Giving the girl a small smile he replied in kind, "Naruto Namikaze, I think I'm seat 32."

There was an awkward silence although Mana didn't seem phased in the least before she spoke again, "Will you give us the honor of joining group 4 today?"

Jumping slightly at the sudden question, he mentally questioned, 'Honor?' with a quirked eyebrow before nodding. It didn't really matter which group he joined, he would have all the groups followed with a clone and a kunai anyway. "I don't mind, I don't have a schedule or official group to follow anyway."

Mana nodded as if him joining them was a given before answering, "Our bus is this way." Naruto gave another smile and a mock salute, "Hai, Mana-taicho." Before following the dark skinned girl.

He didn't see a red haired twin tailed girl look as if she had swallowed a lemon as he got on the bus with Mana and her group.

When Naruto got on the bus and met with Group 4, he had to silently wonder what Mahora fed its students. All of them apart for Makie and Ako had tall busty figures with pretty going on beautiful faces. Makie seemed to be pouting that it was just Naruto joining them instead of Negi.

"Yuuna Akashi, hajimemashite." A black haired girl with aside pony tail introduced herself with a bow.

"Akira Ocho, yoroshiku onegaishimasu," Another tall elegant girl with a pony tail and naturally curled brown hair.

"I'm Ako Izumi, I'm the girl that you met in the infirmary, I volunteer there sometimes," the shorter girl with lavender short hair introduced herself, and Naruto had a flashback to when Shizuna-sensei had asked for food from her.

"Makie Sasaki desu! I'm in the gymnastics club!" Naruto had to sweat drop at the sudden change in attitude. The girl was as bubbly and vibrant as her pink hair.

He gave all them a bow trying to ignore the stare coming from the dark skinned girl slightly behind him, "Namikaze Naruto, nice to meet all of you, I hope we get along well." Once all the introductions were done he walked to the back of the bus for some relaxation, quoting that he felt slightly unwell to stem the flow of questions from the bubbly girl, before they reached Nara.

Naturally Kami wasn't willing to let him relax.

The presence of Mana approached him again, and he felt her sit beside him. The continuous stare didn't help either and made him nervous. It felt like he was some bug being observed.

Giving a nervous chuckle he spoke to fill the weird silence, "Ca-can I help you? You're staring is making me nervous."

Mana took a look around to see the rest of the bus too engrossed in messing around to overhear them before turning back to the person sitting beside her, "I was wondering what kind of a person was the guy who dug himself out from under the World Tree like, and whether he meant my class and school any trouble."

"Oh."

_Oh…_

Naruto relaxed instead of doing otherwise, no point pretending if he didn't have to, "He doesn't mean anyone harm and just wants to live his life like a normal person, although I AM curious why a half demon, no offense, would go to a normal girl's school, wouldn't it make more sense to stay where you can learn things more appropriate to your talents?"

She wasn't the only one that could be blunt.

"Takes one to know one."

"Touche."

"My parents are here, that's all the reason I need, although I heard from the Dean that we might be working together sometime in the future. I look forward to it."

Naruto smiled, in her own way, the blunt girl had just offered him her hand in friendship. "Me too."

**********Broken Faith*********

Naruto stretched once he got off the bus and trailed behind the two hyperactive girls named Makie and Yuuna. Mana was beside Naruto at the very back of the group, talking quietly, while Ako and Akira, the two more reserved member of the group followed slightly behind Makie.

"Heh, brings back memories." Naruto said.

Mana quirked her eyebrow in question, "Memories? I was under the impression you were buried under that tree for more than a thousand years, you probably don't even know about Japan, much less Nara."

"Oh I don't, it's just that back then, I had a friend. His clan name was Nara, and guess what they were famous for. Breeding deers." _And killing people with their shadows but she doesn't need to know that._

"I see…. One of the things Nara is famous for is the Kasugayama Primeval Forest, the forest has been around for a very long time, I wouldn't be surprised if the influence of your friend's family has gone down in time through that forest."

Naruto stretched his back and took a deep breath of the air and felt a wide smile spread on his face, it felt nostalgic and peaceful for some reason, turning to Mana, "So what are the plans for today?"

The dark skinned girl quirked her lips, this was the first time she had seen the blonde so cheerful. It probably had something to do with the location so she didn't begrudge him his peace of mind. "At the moment, we are near the Kasuga-taisha, a Shinto shrine. Groups 1 through 3 are on the other side of Nara Park at the Buddhist temples. Everyone meets up for lunch at Nara Park before switching locations."

"Well? What are we waiting for, let's go!"

Mana gave another smile at his unusual exuberance.

Group 5 walked around, enjoying the scenery, and all of them enjoyed tea in a traditional atmosphere at the Tea Gardens of Nara Park, especially shy little Ako and tall Akira who seemed like a really formal princess with the formal backgrounds. Naruto silently thought that Chachamaru would have loved the tea served here. Quietly he bought several packages of tea for the gynoid and stored it in a seal. Then they walked through the Manyo Botanical Garden, admiring the huge amounts of colorful flora available. Even Mana seemed more relaxed. Makie and Yuuna went wide eyed and bounced around the garden. While they walked they occasionally bought some Shika-senbei to feed the tame deer that were allowed to roam freely around the grounds. At one point something weird happened.

Nara Park was filled with beautiful tame deer, completely at ease in the presence of humans, and there were various food stands along the paved walkways. Naruto gravitated towards the food, only to be stopped when he felt soft hands wrap around his arm, and begin to pull him towards the nearest group of deer. It was Makie.

As she hesitantly reached a hand out to stroke a nearby deer, a second and then a third soon surrounded them. Feeling a hard tap on the small of his back, Naruto fell forward slightly, and when he turned around he find one of the largest deer in the area. He lifted his hand to its head and the beast began to happily nuzzle his hand.

When the deer knocked Naruto forward, Makie tightened the grip on his arm and hid behind him, silently blushing at the hard muscles of Naruto's back. When the deer showed itself to be friendly, Naruto felt the death grip she held on his arm relax considerably. Seeing her distress, he told her "It's alright, they're not going to hurt you, they're probably just curious." She proceeded to follow his example, slowly sticking her own hand towards the beast's muzzle.

The deer gave Makie's palm an experimental lick, causing her to let out a small giggle. It seemed to much prefer Naruto though, continuing to try to lick and nuzzle his arm, causing him to laugh as it tickled his palm with its warm tongue.

"Hey, Naruto-san," Akira called, sounding a bit worried. He wondered why, but soon found out. Giving the large deer an affectionate pat on the head, Naruto turned to find himself almost surrounded by the furry animals. Feeling Naruto's arm tense up, Makie turned to investigate as well. When Naruto felt the grip on his arm increase to almost painful levels, he looked at the scared girl that was clinging to his arm. She was tense and obviously afraid of the multitude of deer. When he started to move, slowly and carefully through the herd, he felt Makie bury her face in his arm. Slowly and carefully, he made his way through the herd, which did nothing more than take occasional sniffs as he past.

Once he was free he let out a breath he didn't even realise he had been holding and made his way back to the rest of the group. Turning his attention to the girl who still hadn't opened her eyes, he got her attention with a tap on the head. When she looked up, he told her "Don't worry, its safe now." When looked, she did find them safe, the deer were no longer surrounding them and were just watching the two of them as they left, staring. Even so, Makie continued to cling to him until all the deer were well out of sight and finally allowed herself to relax.

Nonetheless, despite the relaxed and almost sacred atmosphere, Naruto never let his guard down and received mental reports from every one of his clones hourly. After the fiasco last night, he couldn't afford to let his guard down with his currently healing body.

They finally reached a path lined with stone lanterns, leading up to a great building decorated with many bronze lanterns and the entrance framed by many majestic torii gates.

Together the six of them walked up the path, until they reached the main courtyard. Inside the girls excused themselves to go the toilet while Naruto found himself leaning against one of the pillars and relaxing in the soothing and purifying atmosphere of the shrine when he found himself unexplainably attracted to one of the auxiliary shrines off the side of the main courtyard. Standing before the shrine with his hands in his pockets, he wondered what brought him here when somebody tapped his shoulders.

"You feel the great concentration of Natural energies around this particular shrine do you not?" startled by the tap and the words, Naruto spun around to meet an old lady wearing the traditional Shinto priestess costume and her gray hair decorated by wisteria flowers but her aura was as firm as steel and leaked peacefulness and wisdom.

Wary of the old lady, Naruto only nodded. "The relic this shrine is dedicated to is enshrouded in the Natural energies, that's what brought you here, whether you knew it or not. Silently this relic has protected our shrine for generations and I'm not surprised that it drew you here. Sages are rare in this time and age, and a Sage as attuned to the Natural energies of our world as you are is nothing short of a miracle.

This caused Naruto to relax, if she could see that he was a Sage, she would not mean him harm. Turning back to observe the shrine again, he replied, "How did you know I was a Sage. It's been a long time since I met a true Sage, and even longer since my mentor taught me the ways of a Sage."

"I see…. How is your mentor?"

"He…he passed away a long time ago."

"… I mourn for your loss…."

The silence stretched for a while but it was comfortable before the miko spoke again, "Would you like to see the relic?"

Surprised, Naruto stared at the Miko, "Is that even allowed?"

The old lady chuckled, I'm the current guardian of the relic, and I know you will not harm me or the relic, if you promise not to tell I can show you," the old lady gave him a wink as though sharing a secret with him. Naruto could only smile, "I would love too."

The old lady bustled in front of the shrine, her back hiding whatever it is in the wooden hut but when she turned around Naruto felt his knees go weak and tears sprung from his eyes.

The old lady only smiled as if she was expecting this reaction but Naruto didn't notice, too focused was he on the scroll that he was intimately familiar with, the scroll that Jiraiya once carried before it was passed down to him after his death.

The Toad summoning Scroll.

He had left this with the Toads before he set off to the last battle, not willing to leave it in the hands of Konoha where any number of unworthy people could abuse it. He had no idea how it found its way back into this dimension but he was not complaining.

One hand reached out to gently caress the scroll, before in a flick of his hands he unrolled it, causing the priestess to gasp. No one had ever been able to open the scroll and unknown to most, the methods of doing so was only passed down from master to apprentice. Naruto flicked the scroll open in a fluid motion, spreading the thick parchment for him to see. Swiping the tears from his eyes so that he didn't damage the scroll he gently ran his hands along the long dried ink that contained names of past summoners when he stopped at the last three names.

'_**Jiraiya Otsuka'**_

'_**Minato Namikaze'**_

'_**Naruto Uzumaki'**_

Naruto couldn't help it. The blonde sobbed. Against all odds, a piece of his past had returned to him. One that wasn't tainted by betrayal.

He felt himself being embraced by gentle arms and the scent of wisteria as the old miko allowed the young sage to cry on her shoulder.

He didn't know how long had passed but he finally got a hold of himself. Blearily he smiled at the old lady, "I don't know how to thank you, but you gave me a piece of my past back to me," His smile dropped, "Obaa-chan, I know I can't take this thing out of here, but I need a favor."

The old miko just smiled, "Go ahead, from what I can tell, this probably belonged to your ancestors anyway."

Naruto didn't bother to correct her, it wasn't technically wrong anyway, biting his thumb, he elegantly wrote the new name

'_**Naruto Namikaze'**_

The old lady only quirked her eyes at the name and the similarity to the last two names, Naruto thought she was smiling because she thought her assumptions that it belonged to his ancestors were justified.

Rolling the thing up again, he gently placed it back in the old lady's hands and stood up. Once the scroll was safely back in the shrine he gave a watery smile in thanks to the miko.

"If you ever need anything, money, or even just someone to have tea with, throw this knife on the floor and I'll know." And Naruto placed the kunai into the old priestess's hands. The old lady just smiled as if she knew something he didn't, putting the kunai into her clothes before the old lady cupped the blonde's cheek. "Young man, you maybe the most Natural energy attuned Sage I have ever seen, but despite that, despite the strong front you put up, this old lady isn't blind yet, and I can easily tell that you are weighed down, chained by your own regrets. Your weakness right now, is all of your own making, and only you can release yourself. If nothing else, listen to this old lady, and learn to forgive yourself before it's too late."

Naruto only looked strangely at the miko but promised to think about her words and left to rejoin the girls who had to be wondering where he was feeling surprisingly refreshed, purified and lighter than he had felt since he had left Konoha.

When he looked back over his shoulder to wave goodbye, the old priestess wasn't there anymore.

*********Broken Faith*********

He found the girls hanging around the shrines, making wishes with the Emas hanging there while waiting for him.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully and Naruto was thankful for the absence of the Monkey using lady from the night before. Although he was amused when one of his clones sent a report about a confession from Nodoka to Negi shortly before everyone met up for lunch as well as the conspiracy by the rest of Group 5 to let them be alone. In fact, the whole ride back to the hotel, Naruto was amused to note a continuous blush from Nodoka who was being teased by the green haired girl and the really long twin tailed girl whereas Negi sat at the front of the bus looking like his brains had been bombed and fried.

He took an early dinner and quietly preparing proximity clones all around the hotel before going off to relax in the hotsprings, unknowingly missing the commotion between Negi and the rest of 3-A about his confession as well as allowing Group 4 to join and share gossip with the rests of their classmates about the hunky blonde that had just joined their class. Makie especially had a lot to say about his muscles.

********Broken Faith*******

Elsewhere the dark skinned Mana had separated from the rest of her group to join Kaede, the slit eyed ninja and Setsuna the swordswoman.

She raised an eye at Setsuna, the observation of Naruto was only between her and Kaede, how did Setsuna come to know about this? Nonetheless her thoughts were derailed by Kaede, "So? What is our new classmate like?"

"Bipolar."

"Oh?" Mana knew without elaboration that Kaede wanted more information.

"After his display on the train when he was first introduced, we took him for a loner, but during the outing he assimilated himself pretty well into the group and was accepted easily, he was also cheerful and exuberant."

"I see….. what about his skills? We already know he can use Ki."

Mana shook her head, "I couldn't find any signs that showed he was a warrior other than that singular display, he works out and has toned muscles, but his limbs lack any sort of calluses to show dedication to martial arts. Although I have to say throughout the trip, despite him seeming to be cheerful and laidback, his eyes were continuously surveying the surroundings." She left out the fact that Naruto was a half demon as well. That was a secret between the two of them alone.

For the first time since the meeting, a thoughtful Setsuna spoke up, "No, even if he doesn't look it, I know he is good at fighting. At worst he is probably out of practice since he was dug out from under the World Tree."

"I hadn't thought of that." Mana admitted.

Setsuna went on to outline what happened the night before and the skills Naruto had displayed but left out the fact that Naruto was a half demon as well. She knew better than most about the stigma of being demonic ancestry and it wasn't her secret to tell.

Once her tale was done, Kaede eyes were slitted even more in thought, but Mana didn't seem to be affected and couldn't care less.

They were silent for awhile, pondering new information before Setsuna got up, "Now that you know about the situation, can I count on your back up if things get bad?"

Mana and Kaede glanced at each other, "Usual rates?" Kaede nodded and Setsuna thanked them before leaving.

Once Setsuna had gone, Kaede looked at Mana again and inquired about something that had been nagging her senses from the beginning, "What are you hiding from me?"

Mana blushed and Kaede's eyes widened, she had never seen Mana blush in the 3 years she had known the mercenary.

"For nearly half an hour, Naruto somehow evaded all my senses and I was unable to track him at all while we were at Kasuga-taisha." Kaede nodded in realization, the blush that surprised her wasn't because of Mana was attracted, no, Mana was inordinately proud of her skills, and for a target to avoid her for so long, especially since he probably didn't even leave the premises probably wounded her pride.

"Do you think it is a skill he has?"

"No….. this felt different. Something else was actively hiding his presence from me, some sort of fog obscured all my senses whenever I got even a hint of his presence. Despite that, it felt natural, not artificial or manmade at all. He had nothing to do with it, I doubt he realized it himself at the temple."

"I see…. So what do we do?"

"Nothing, as far as I can tell, he doesn't mean anybody harm, and he was hired by the Dean to be a on-site bodyguard whenever we can't make it since we are still students. He has no such obligations."

"Very well….. Shall we go for dinner?"

Mana agreed before they left in silence, wondering about the blonde enigma.

*******Broken Faith*******

Naruto smirked when he saw who had just joined him in the hot springs but it seemed like the red head was so preoccupied he hadn't even noticed Naruto.

Inching his way beside the 10 year old, he smacked the boy's back causing him to topple over into the hot water and laughed as the boy spluttered.

"What are you doing Naruto-san!"

"Nothing… nothing… just playing around." The blonde stated before giving him another knowing smirk.

When Negi saw the smirk he felt a shiver crawl down his spine.

"So….. did you kiss her?"

Negi toppled into the water again, this time by himself and another round of laughter came from Naruto.

When Negi finally dried his eyes, he pouted at the older blonde, although he did note that Naruto seemed different…. somehow. More relaxed and open.

Said blonde finally finished laughing and patted the younger boy's back before they both settled into the water and relaxed.

"Neh… Naruto-san… have you ever been confessed to before?"

Naruto cocked his head in thought for a while, "Four times. No wait three times."

The fourth time…. was rather weird.

**Flashback**

_Naruto had been training in his mindscape, shortly after Pein had demolished Konoha. Nagato had passed down his will of fire to achieve peace to Naruto and Naruto was determined to bring that dream into realization but he was candid enough to admit he didn't have the strength to achieve that dream yet. Hence why he was training so hard._

_Once he was done he slumped down under a Sakura tree to relax. Until he noticed his mindscape's usual occupant was missing from sight. 'Meh, whatever.' He had thought and proceeded to relax. He was so relaxed that he nearly jumped into the air when he realized a pair of ruby red eyes were staring at him from a distance measured in inches. He had fallen back on his rump, rubbing his chest where his heart was beating at super speed. The reason his heart was beating so hard? He was honest enough to admit to himself that he had dreamed of having the owner of those red eyes close to him ever since he was 14, but never made a move because he didn't think he was worthy enough. _

_I mean, he was a 14 year old brat that loved ramen and could barely support himself. Much less another person, how was he to confess anything to a Demon Lord? The most powerful one at that. He was content to watch her beauty and grace from a far. As long as she stayed with him, even if he could never hold that ethereal beauty and grace in his own arms he would not regret it._

_Once he had calmed down enough from the sudden shock he realized that she hadn't said anything, and just stood there watching him with a weird expression on her face. Warily getting up, he approached her slowly, he had learnt from experience, getting her riled up was a very bad idea, especially since his first meeting with her when Jiraiya threw him down the ravine wasn't exactly pleasant._

_She had a temper when she was surprised or when she just woke up._

_Who knew the Demon Lord Kyuubi no Kitsune wasn't a morning person?_

_Waving his hands in front of her face slowly, he asked, "Akane? You alright?"_

_The Demon Lord just swatted the hands away from her face and continued to watch him with that realllly weird expression. And it was official, Naruto was starting to get creeped out._

_When she finally reacted, it definitely wasn't what he expected, although he admitted he never regretted it._

_She had grasped the front of his coat and lifted him off the ground aggressively and smacked him against the tree, surprised, shocked, and confused were just a few of the feelings running through him at the moment._

_She then thrust her face directly in front of his and asked in the lowest, most threatening voice she could manage, "Do you like me?"_

_Naruto paled, how had she found out, he was doomed. She would get offended because a nobody like him dared to have feelings for her, hence the sudden aggressiveness, so he did what any rational man would do in face of beautiful woman asking if he had feelings for her. Deny deny deny. Then run away with his tail between his legs. "Hu-huh?_

"_Do. You. Like. Me?" she emphasized every word by smacking him into the tree. _

_Naruto gulped, it looked like he wasn't going to get away, internally he was saying his last rites and prayer, 'Good bye kaa-san, sorry I couldn't have those grandchildren you wanted soooo much….'. _

_Externally? "Ye-ye-yes?"_

_The woman just continued to stare at him, that same weird expression was there again. Then she kissed him as hard as she could. _

_Hours could have passed and Naruto wouldn't know any better, he was currently on Cloud Nine with a Do Not Disturb sign._

_Once she had let his lips go, a dazed Naruto could only slump back onto his butt and watch the Demon Queen stalk away in confusion._

_It wouldn't be till a year later when he realized the reasons for her actions. She was a beautiful woman and powerful beyond belief, but the one thing that was most important to her was pride and dignity. Due to her pride, she couldn't bring herself to confess to __**him**__, hence she __**made **__him confess to __**her**__. _

_And people say men are weird._

_It would take another year before Naruto successfully coaxed the reason she suddenly flipped like that, not that he was complaining. Apparently the Demon Queen had felt threatened by Hinata's confession during Pein's attack and decided to stake her territory before the 'Bug eyed girl tried to take her stuff'._

_Naruto had laughed, and then decided that was the wrong thing to do when she proceeded to kick his ass six ways to Sunday._

_Naruto had learnt the hard way that when they were dating, Akane was a VERY mellow and affectionate person when she had someone attentive to her needs. That all went down the drain when you pissed her off though. And one sure fire way of doing that was to hurt her pride._

**End Flashback**

Naruto smiled softly at the good memories and Negi could only smile along when he saw the soft smile. Despite being exiled, Naruto had good times, and that was all that was important.

Then reality cashed in and he started getting nervous again. When Naruto saw the boy getting anxious he just patted the kid's head like an older brother would for his little brother. "You're still 10 years old Negi, I won't say you are too young or not, but I will say this, right now, if you have feelings for her, then go for it, better to have had, then to never have at all, but be sure it is the real thing." A flash of red hair and crimson eyes passed in his mind's eye, "If you rush it right now, and you weren't sure that it was the real thing, it will only crumple beneath the pressure of the world's expectations of the two of you, causing even more pain for the both of you."

"On the other hand, If you don't, then tell her because stringing girls along and playing with their feelings is the one of the most despicable things a guy can do."

Naruto just shrugged, "I'm not exactly the best role model when it comes to these things so that's all I can say." Then he looked down to see Negi's big round tearful worshipful eyes and he had to sweat drop.

"Naruto-niisan… that was the wisest thing anyone ever said to me!" the younger boy said before he lunged at Naruto in a bear hug causing the both of them to overbalance and nearly fall into the water.

Naruto just laughed at the boy stuck to him and patted his head affectionately. Once he had regained his balance.

Unfortunately they were both distracted from their male bonding by the sound of the door opening.

Both of them snapped their heads up to see a blurry form moving through the steam.

Negi blushed bright red while Naruto simply arched a questioning eyebrow.

"Shi-shizuna-sensei?" Negi managed to choke out before he noticed that Naruto had once again retreated into his cold slightly distant persona. Before he could question the blonde though, the green haired nurse of Mahora had already approached him apparently ignoring the other occupant of the baths.

"Arara? Negi-sensei? You did a great job today! Do you want me to wash your back as a reward? 'Shizuna' spoke with the gentle yet cheerful tone that was typical of her.

Negi went red, stuttering nonsense, causing 'Shizuna' to gently laugh.

The 'nurse' knelt beside the small boy who was hunched over his privates and whispered into his ear, "Uhuhu, the truh is Negi-sensei… I know your secret….You are…a MAGE right?"

Negi stiffened in shock at Shizuna-sensei. In his surprise he had completely forgotten that Shizuna was already aware of the magical world.

Naruto stifled a snort, he had suspected but what the woman said just confirmed it. Still…. It wasn't his problem and watching Negi get riled up was a very entertaining pastime.

The person posing as Shizuna put a finger at her chin in a cute and thoughtful pose but her tone was seductive, "I…want to see your magic Negi-sensei…will you show me?"

"Eeehh? I-I can't do th-, Boing 3" Negi tried to object loudly but before he got any further he was cut off by 'Shizuna stuffing his face between her melons.

"Neee~ee, don't be such a prude, show me please?"

When Negi got free from her breasts, instead of replying he had a confused look on his face, "Ano… I know it's rude to ask, but did your breasts get smaller Shizuna-sensei?" Negi asked.

"W-What? I'm the fourth largest in the class you know!" 'Shizuna' shouted. "I even let you touch them!"

"Fourth largest in the class? Who are you!" Negi demanded.

"I've guessed you've figured it out. One moment I'm a big breasted teacher and next I am the breaking news reporter! My true identity is 3-A's seat 3, Kazumi Asakura!" She grabbed her wig and threw it off, to reveal the red haired teen, without the ponytail.

"Gaaah! Asakura-san!" Negi shouted in surprised

"This is bad Negi! She found out! We have to erase her memory!"

Right. Ras tel" Negi started.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold your horses," Kazumi said holding up a phone. "Make one move towards me, all I have to do is press the send button and all your secrets will be revealed to the world through my home page."

"Eeeeh? This is bad Aniki! If that gets out, you'll be turned into an ermine!" Chamo shouted but was ultimately ignored.

Negi started tearing up and tried to plead with the reporter, "Wh-why are you doing this Asakura-san?"

"Huhuhuh, it can't be helped, this is a big scoop, and I need your help to achieve my global ambition of worldwide recognition! Think about it, with a discovery of a real mage, interviews, magazines, newspapers, ALL of those will come crawling to my feet" the reporter declared loudly."

"Bu-but I don't want worldwide recognition! Hawawaeuuuu!"

Naruto shook his head, Negi was close to snapping and it wasn't funny anymore. Watching him get riled up was one thing, watching him cry was another. He waded forward unnoticed by the maniacally laughing red head reporter and Negi, bringing one fist down on his head, caused both of them to shut up and Negi to stop crying.

The reporter had immediately jumped back out of the pool, she berated herself for not noticing the blonde was in here as well the whole time, but it was unavoidable, she had been to focused on her homeroom teacher.

On the other hand, while Negi tearfully rubbed the new lump on his head, Naruto just gave him a lopsided smirk, "You calmed down yet, Chibi?"

"Awaawa….. I can't be a teacher anymore…. What am I going to do Naruto-niisan?"

"Tch, just relax." Naruto said before giving him a wink.

He swiveled to face the naked reporter who was still berating herself internally, or at least she was until she noticed Naruto making his way towards her.

"St-stop, you heard me, Negi is a mage! If you let me go, I'll share profits among the three of us equally!"

"I don't really care about money….." he put on his most sadistic smile, "but I really don't like people that profit at the expense of others."

When he didn't stop, Asakura tried to punch in the orders to her cellphone, only to hear a 'Thwip" and a 'Smack' and her cellphone wasn't there anymore.

Frantically looking around for her only lifeline she saw it embedded in the wall with some sort of knife piercing it.

She almost started wailing on the spot at the loss of her cellphone and big scoop when she turned around and saw that Naruto was a few feet from her, the sadistic and malicious smile causing her body to freeze up in fear. The way he walked was like a predator and she knew what was the prey today.

Forcing her body to move, she started edging away from the predator that she knew was going to hurt her until she felt something bump her back, desperately swinging around she realized that the blonde had backed her into a corner, when she turned back around it was too late and Naruto was right in front of her.

The blonde immediately grabbed both her arms and pinned them above her, she never felt more fear in her life. "Wha-what do you want?"

Naruto didn't reply but just stared at her and the reporter, despite her situation felt very self conscious that she was currently naked, and pinned to a wall by an almost naked blonde. The grin returned, this time there was a hint of lust and Asakura honestly didn't know if she was more afraid or turned on by the situation. The blonde lowered his head to her ear and whispered in her ear with a husky tone, "Next time you want to play with the big boys, make sure you're prepared to lose _everything_….." the blonde nipped her neck and the red head almost moaned at the feeling of his teeth piercing her, "Now….. what kind of a punishment a bad girl like you deserves? Hmmm?"

This time she felt the blonde run his tongue up her neck and when she felt an even harder bite on her neck, the combination of fear and sexual desire became too much and her fuse broke and Naruto was left holding an unconscious reporter.

The blonde gave a loud laugh and carried the reporter over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes before tossing her on Negi. "Do what you want with her, but tell her if she tries to force you to do anything you don't want, I won't let her off with just a simple bite."

From start to finish, Negi was silently gaping at the blonde. Even when he tossed the girl on to him, even pinned under the fainted reporter he was STILL gaping at Naruto.

Chamo's declaration after Naruto had left pretty much summed up his thoughts.

"My hero!"

And then the ermine proceeded to worship the place where the blonde had last stood.

******Broken Faith*******

After Asakura had woken up with a red and dazed face, Negi had explained his situation and the law on Magical Secrecy before getting up to leave, "Oh, and… I don't get it but Naruto-niisan says if you try to force me to do anything like that again, he won't leave you with just a bite," Negi finished with a sheepish chuckle and left the hot springs. Although he did wonder why Asakura looked so red at that last sentence.

When the rest of 3-A trooped in 10 minutes later they found Asakura sitting in the exact same pose Negi had left her in, with a smile torn between horrified and goofy as well as a lobster red face.

*******Broken Faith*******

"So do _we_have a deal?" Chamo asked the red head.

"Of course we do," Kazumi smirked. "When do we start operation X?"

"Why tonight of course!" Chamo puffed from his cigar. "We have a lot of planning to do. Nyohohoho!"

*******Broken Faith********

"Someone found out about you being a mage!" Asuna shouted. "And of all people Asakura!"

"Y-yes…" Negi sheepishly replied, "Bu-but its ok! Naruto-niisan took care of her and now she promised she won't do anything anymore!"

"Naruto? What does he have to do with this?"

Before Negi could answer Asuna's question they were interrupted by the reporter in question.

"Hey Negi-sensei!" Kazumi greeted as she came into the room, surprisingly with Chamo on her shoulder.

"Asakura?" Asuna sighed, "Try not to pick on Negi so much ok? He's just a kid."

"Pick on Negi? What are you talking about?" Asakura asked. "And speaking of that, don't you hate kids?"

"Aniki, reporter-nee-san is on our side now!" Chamo cheered.

"That's right. Chamo here convinced me to turn over a new leaf. So from here on out I am your agent if you need me," Kazumi said.

"Really?" Negi shouted gleefully.

"Yup. I'm even going to give you back the negatives," she explained handing over an envelope with pictures inside.

Asuna sweat dropped at the sudden change in attitude, _'Whatever Naruto did to her, he really did a number. She's even being nice enough to sacrifice her negatives...'_ she suddenly felt she had swallowed another lemon.

Ignorant of the problems Asuna was currently facing, Negi was delighted. "Thank you so much! This makes me lose one problem," Negi cried tears of joy.

"What's going on Negi-sensei?" Ayaka asked with the rest of 3-A behind her.

"I was just improving my relationship with Asakura-san!" Poor poor naïve Negi.

"That's right, hihihi." Asakura said while cuddling Negi's head to her bosom, causing Ayaka and Makie to burn with anger but before they could say anything they were interrupted by Nitta-sensei shooing them to bed and reprimanding Negi for being so soft to his students.

Setsuna laughed sheepishly from the sidelines before prompting Asuna to join her on patrol, although the twin tailed girl seemed to be simmering about something before she seemed to think about something, spinning to face Setsuna she asked the swordswoman what was bugging her, "Have you seen Naruto? I haven't seen him since dinner."

"Oh, Naruto-san already went to bed after dinner and bathing. Earlier he told me that he was still tired from last night so he would leave security up to his clones. They're already all around the perimeter and we only need to tell anyone of them if we have a problem and it'll know what to do."

Unseen to the swordswoman, disappointment flashed across Asuna's face before confusion appeared. Confusion at exactly why did she feel disappointed that Naruto would not be on patrol with them. Shaking herself at the needless thoughts she squared her shoulders and set off for patrol with Setsuna.

Meanwhile, Groups 2 and 4 were holding a pillow fight. Groups 3 and 1 were telling scary stories and Group 5 was discussing the events of the confession made by Nodoka, or at least they were until Nitta-sensei, attracted by all the noise immediately threatened all of them with squatting in the halls the whole night. Needless to say everyone of them went quiet and were about to obediently go back to bed.

Or at least they were until Asakura made her appearance.

"Well, well, well, it seems like that could have went better…" Kazumi trailed off from out of nowhere.

"Where were you the whole time you coward!" Ayaka said.

"It doesn't matter where I was hiding the whole time. But it would be a waste of time if tonight ended just like that isn't it Iincho? So I got a suggestion, how about a little game?" Asakura continued coyly.

"I won't allow this sort of thing," Ayaka denied the request.

"What kind of game would it be?" Fuuka asked her fellow red head, ignoring the fuming Iincho.

"Let's just call it…. 'War of the Lips'. A game to get a _'Love-Love Kiss' _with Negi-sensei during the school trip~!"

"Eh! A kiss with Negi-sensei!" half the class shouted.

"Hey, hey, quiet down, we don't want Nitta finding out about this do we?" Kazumi warned them. "The rules are simple. Every group will choose two representatives. Those two will wander the hotel looking for Negi-sensei and try to get a kiss from him as well as dodging any of the other teachers. You can sabotage other teams if you want to, but you can only use pillows to do so. There are wonderful prizes for the winners but if you get caught you will have to squat until morning without telling Nitta about the game even if you die."

"What's the wonderful prize you talked about?" Fuuka asked.

"What about Naruto-kun?" Misa asked. "Can we go after him if we want to?" Several girls heads turned towards Misa as if she was mad. Kiss him after that display on the train? Although a certain few didn't seem to object to the idea. Then they swiveled their heads to stare at Asakura.

Her reaction caused a few of them to get puzzled reactions.

Her face had gone red, but she looked over her shoulders as if he would pop up from the shadows of the room with a nervous look on her face until she noticed the rest of the class staring at her.

Composing herself she replied to Misa.

"Sorry but this game is dedicated to Negi-sensei. You won't get a prize from kissing Naruto-k-san," Asakura caught her slip up at the last second, her body couldn't seem to make up its mind whenever the blonde was mentioned. Some of the girls pouted but agreed nonetheless.

"So what do you say Iincho?"

When everyone in the class turned as one to look at the blonde female, they were surprised to see her still fuming. In fact, she seemed to be so angry her shoulders were shaking and her eyes were obscured by her hair. At least they thought she was angry until she started walking towards Asakura who started to look as if she was regretting her idea.

"As class president I…" Ayaka said with her hair covering her eyes. "I wholeheartedly approve." Her face was a bright tomato red when she agreed.

Everybody cheered.

"Okay, okay, all groups must tell me their representatives by 10:30. The game will start at 11!" The rest of 3-A cheered again. She walked away and Chamo appeared from within the vest of her uniform. "That went really well. Everything is going according to plan! Nyohohoh!"

"Just what I expected from you onee-chan. My diabolical plan to get more of these," Chamo held out three pactios (two mistake pactios and Asuna's) "will finally come to fruition, ohohoho~"

"So these are the wonderful prizes huh?" Asakura inquired.

"Hai Negi has the originals but I made these using my magic so his partners could use them. I've set up a magic circle around the hotel. So if anyone kisses aniki we will be able to establish a contract immediately. And since these are 50,000 ermine dollar a card, when we sell them, we will be millionaires."

As the unlikely couple walked down the corridor giving creepy villains laugh they failed to notice a Naruto clone sitting outside under the windowsill with a large sweat drop and dead pan expression due to the stupid plan.

He was tempted to dispel and wake the original but then again, he was a security clone and this wasn't a problem at all. Besides he resented the original for being able to sleep while he and his brethren slogged throughout the night. It would be fun to see him wake up in the chaos.

The night was silent except a little perverted giggle from the clone.

********Broken Faith********

"Negi-sensei, we finished our patrol and I improved the barrier," Setsuna said to her teacher. "But I saw Chamo set up some sort of weird magical array outside."

"I wonder what is that perverted rodent up to?" Asuna said while glancing at her homeroom teacher.

"Ah, not so loud, Naruto is asleep in the next room. Anyway otsukare-sama, its my turn to go on patrol then." Negi replied as he got up, then he paused before making a face, "For some reason I get the feeling I shouldn't stay here or something."

Negi shivered as he said those words right then and Asuna noticed due to her motherly nature. "Negi did you catch a cold?" she asked before she shivered as well, "Now that you mention it I feel it too." Asuna said with a cold sweat running down her back.

"Yet it does not feel evil at all," Setsuna interjected. "Whatever the case maybe if you go on patrol, I'll give you these substitution stencils so that students wont panic if they find you missing."

"Substitution stencils?"

Before Setsuna could explain they were interrupted by the door slamming open and an entirely too cheerful Shizuna-sensei stumbled in.

"Negi-sensei! It's almost time to go to sleep!" Shizuna said as she opened the door to his room.

"Ah yes yes, I was about to got to sleep."

"Very well, we'll handle looking over the children. Please don't leave your room," Shizuna told him as she walked off. As she turned the corner she removed her hair to reveal Kazumi.

"Hurry up nee-sama." Chamo shouted.

Kazumi gave an evil cackle before she announced, "Let the games begin!"

********Broken Faith********

**Author Notes**

**This was actually already half done before my exams ended, so I figured why the hell not? After all I haven't updated this in a while and thus decided to give my readers a treat rather than wait the prerequisite 2 weeks for another update. **

**Finished this as of 5 am, 8****th**** of December.**

'Brown desu.' - means the same as 'Watashi no name wa Brown desu' but is more colloquial, way less formal, much easier to remember and will not get you into trouble.

'Hajimemashite' - means 'Hello, I am pleased to make your acquaintance' and you only use it the very first time you meet unless you want to break the ice by being a comedian

'**Yoroshiku onegaishimasu'** – very formal way of introducing oneself.

**Shika Senbei – **Deer crackers.

**Torii** – Shinto shrine entrances, usually said to separate the mundane world form the world of the Gods.

**Otsuka – **the surname of Jiraiya's seiyuu.

**Otsukare-sama** – a way of saying, 'good work.' In an informal setting.

**Do Note, I NEVER directly said that Naruto IS a half demon, just that in all the ways that mattered it made no difference. One of my reviewers didn't like a half demon Naruto, in my defense I never said he was half demon, you just assumed he was because I had him grow claws. Even in canon Naruto grew claws when he used youki.**

**The Buddhist temple where Negi and Nodoka were playing around at is the Todai-ji. A Buddhist temple. The shrine in this story is the Kasuga Shrine, or the Kasuga taisha, a Shinto shrine dedicated to Takemikazhuchi-Ou, Futsunushi, Ame no Koyane and Himegami. Both Takemikazuchi and Futsunushi are related to swords and lightning btw.**

**Credit to Ashaman of Fire and his Kitsune on Campus, I took some parts as well as research done by him, although I think there was a part in his fic where he mistook Buddhist temples for the Shinto Shrines.**


	6. Kisses, Flutes and a Ninja's trickery 2

**Broken Faith 6. **

**Disclaimer : I own nothing, Naruto, Mahou sensei Negima, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gundam Seed. None of them even remotely belong to me. A very very very distant cousin? Maybe. But not me.**

**Kisses, Flutes and a Ninja's trickery 2**

Authors Note: I have decided that the official theme for this whole fic is the **Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me from Hell.**

**_Soundtracks in the fic_**

_Gurren Lagann – Libera Me from Hell._

_Gurren Lagann – No helping it, I'll just suck it up for One hundred and Twenty Seconds_

_Gundam Seed – Fly Freedom_

******Broken Faith******

'**Beep beep' **the clock struck 11 and a red haired reporter declared the games to begin, along with a perverted rodent cheering silently from beside her.

"The "Negi-sensei, Love love Kiss Operation" is beginning! Bringing this to you live is Asakura Kazumi the beautiful reporter of the Newspaper Club! Currently Teams 2, 3 and 4 are approaching rapidly! Will we be seeing a skirmish soon? I hope so!" the repoter shouted into her microphone excitedly.

*******Broken Faith*******

Elsewhere, ignorant of the excited chattering and shouts of support from their classmates, a blonde haired girl was busy arguing with another girl, this time a red haired one wearing round glasses as they both stealthily crept down the dark hallways of the hotel their class was staying in.

"Neh neh, iincho, you sure I can't go back to the room?" the red haired girl whined to her class president.

"Chisame-san!, you give up too easily! Do you want Negi-sensei's lips to be violated?" the blonde girl argued back. "It's our job to protect his chastity!" the blonde said with a righteous flame alight in her eyes.

Chisame just sighed, "Its not like I care either way," she muttered under her breath so that the blonde girl couldn't hear her.

Suddenly just as they turned the corner Group 1's representatives Ayaka and Chisame bumped into Group 4, Yuuna and Makie.

Startled, all four girls were stunned for a moment before they let the pillows fly at each other, Makie and Ayaka scoring the first hit on each other while Chisame just casually tripped Yuuna. However before Group 3 could get the upper hand they were all attacked simultaneously by Group 2's Ku Fei. Kaede just stood back and laughed quietly, not bothering to join in the festivities. Meanwhile they were all being watched by the rest of the girls who had not joined the game from the TV and cameras set up by Kazumi in the safety of their own rooms.

It wasn't long before Ayaka found herself outnumbered and desperately turned to Chisame for help, only to find the red haired girl missing. Unknown to her, the closet cosplayer had already left, tiring of what she called a 'childish' game. Unfortunately for her she was caught by Nitta-sensei and forced to squat in the hall and the sound of Chisame being caught alerted the skirmish in the hall, causing all of them to immediately scatter in their panic with Ku Fei sacrificing Yuuna to escape Nitta the demon.

Ayaka just laughed sheepishly from a corner watching the two cying girls forced to squat in the hall by Nitta-sensei. Looking around she noticed that everybody else involved in the skirmish had scattered and only she was left in hiding in the corridor. Quietly shrugging she stealthily continued her way towards Room 304, the room where her precious Negi-sensei was supposed to be.

Makie the sole survivor of Group 4 was crying anime tears, she had forgotten where Negi-sensei's room was supposed to be and forgot to ask Yuuna before the start of the game.

Outside, unknown to the remaining members of Group 3, 2 and 4, Group 5's representative of Yue and Nodoka and taken the scenic route to avoid confrontation in the halls entirely. Unluckily once they reached the third floor's corridor a step ladder plonked down from an opening in the roof. Startled they both looked up to see the equally surprised faces of Group 1's representatives. Almost on reflex Yue bashed both of them on the head with her book stuffed pillows.

Quietly, Ayaka made her way to the third floor and witnessed Yue bashing the Fumika twins with books and pillows while her team mate Nodoka panicked on the sidelines. Laughing gleefully in her own head, she took advantage of the commotion and slipped into room 3 without the others noticing.

Once inside the dark room, she turned around to survey the battlefield. Taking a deep sniff of what she thought to be Negi-sensei's smile she gave a goofy smile and crept towards a room where one of Negi-sensei's suit was hanging. Quietly opening the shoji which divided the apartment between the hall, the entrance and two rooms she quietly looked in and saw a comforter completely covering a slightly snoring dark bundle on the floor.

Quickly the stalker… I mean the class president crept over to the bundle, internally smiling at the cute snoring of her Negi-sensei. She was kneeling right beside the bundle; her breathing heavy and ragged like those most would assume belonged to some kind of pervert, she clutched her hands to her cheeks and make squirming motions with a quiet "Kyaaa~". Unable to believe she was being so daring, her heart was hammering in her ribcage so loudly she was afraid the girls fighting outside would notice and a fire red blush spreading all over her face before she heard Ku Fei's voice. She figured that Kaede and Ku Fei had reached the third floor and was now fighting with Yue and the Fumika twins.

Composing herself, she steeled her resolve to do what she wanted before the rest of them came in. Her shaking hands slowly moved inch by inch towards one end of the comforter, ready to gently pull it back and 'Protect Negi-sensei's chastity.'

Unfortunately of course, for the blonde girl, before she knew it the bundle had suddenly exploded open and her world had turned upside down.

In a matter of seconds, she was trussed and tied like a piglet with a gag in her mouth and her body being used by a sleeping Naruto like a bolster with the comforter back on, covering both of them this time.

This time her heart was hammering for an entirely different reason, afraid that Naruto had woken up she chanced a glance back to where the blonde was hugging her from behind before she sweat dropped and silently fumed. The blonde idiot was completely asleep judging by the snoring and he was being an obstacle to her goal of protecting Negi-sensei's lips!

Quietly she tried to ignore the shivers running down her back at the breath caressing the nape of her neck and the warmth of Naruto's muscled body enveloping her which caused her to blush even harder by focusing her mind on Negi and only Negi.

It wasn't working for some reason. Every time she tried to think of Negi hugging her like her blonde counterpart currently was, the image suddenly turned into a flash of sunlight blonde hair and blue eyes.

Another shiver ran down her back.

Shaking her head to clear the…..bad thoughts she tried to struggle to get out of her bonds without waking up her male classmate only to fail as the idiot started nuzzling her neck, starting another round of pleasurable shivers. At the back of her mind she heard a quiet voice wondering what the heck caused Naruto to automatically tie up intruders in his bed.

******Broken Faith******

Meanwhile, in the proper room, Nodoka who had been pushed into Room 304 shortly after Ku Fei arrived in the skirmish between Yue and the Fumika twins was quietly blustering and blushing to herself as she approached what looked like a sleeping Negi. Inwardly she noted that he looked extremely cute without his glasses.

"Ne-Ne-Negi-sensei… I'm sorry it had to be like this… but I'm glad…Please let me kiss you," and she bent over, her trembling lips approached Negi's sleeping ones.

Then she noticed the sleeping Negi wasn't exactly sleeping and staring back at her.

So were the other four Negi-senseis.

'_Fo-four Negi-senseis? Too-too much man meat,'_ her mind crashed and burned at being surrounded by her crush…. "…..HIIIIII! KYAAAAH!" and the shy lavender haired girl fainted with a thud.

The girls outside immediately stopped fighting at the scream and rushed inside to find an empty bed and a fainted Nodoka. While the others immediately gave chase to the missing Negi, Yue immediately went to her best friend's side.

******Broken Faith******

In the other room, blue eyes snapped awake at the scream. Disorientated and confused the blonde tried to move but his arms that were currently stuck and wrapped around his pillow caused him to falter when he heard a quiet gasp from his pillow.

'_I didn't know pillows could gasp….'_ He glanced down at his pillow and his fuzzy mind struggled to comprehend why he had a tied up Iincho in his futon.

The two blondes stared each other silently for a few minutes before the male blonde sat up and pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand, "I don't want to know. I really don't want know. Next time you want to tell me you have a bondage fetish please do it where I can run away easier."

The female one trying and failing to reply due to her gag could only struggle and stare angrily at her classmate.

Sighing at the angry glare he opted not to free her in case she took that anger out on him and tried to ignore the commotion out in the hall and the other room which he could only assume was the result of Negi getting into another mess. He stood up, giving up the idea of getting more sleep entirely and picked up his jacket and made to move to the window before seeming to think about something before he glanced at the bondaged girl.

The blonde moved back towards her and covered the other blonde in his bed with his futon completely, nodding in satisfaction at his handiwork he leapt out the window.

Purposely ignoring the blonde who was tied up on his futon and appeared to be trying to send him telepathic messages which would most certainly include messages of her inflicting some obscure pain and torture on him judging by the muffled screams of rage.

******Broken Faith******

He stretched on the roof and took a deep breath of the fresh cold air before dispelling a clone to send a request for reports from his proximity clones only to sweat drop when he realised his clones were boycotting against him in their own way for sleeping while they did the work.

Muttering about idiotic clones he sat down and relaxed on the roof before going still and activating Sage Mode for a while to get his bearings over everyone under his charge.

Everything was silent save for the occasional bangs and muffled sounds from 3-A's game, those that weren't participating were in their room while he found an unlikely couple hiding in the AV room. The rodent and Asakura. He sighed, this mess was most likely their doing, he would let them have their fun tonight but made a mental note to….educate them tomorrow.

Setsuna and Asuna appeared to be in the hot springs while Negi was doing his patrol.

The last person made him quirk an eyebrow but he ignored it.

Sighing again he dropped his Sage Mode before pulling out his flute and caressed it gently with a finger, savouring the memories before putting it to his lips.

It felt fitting, after the visit to the shrine.

It felt like he was saying goodbye.

**Play Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me from Hell Instrumental**

Under the gentle silvery moonlight one would be forgiven if they saw him and thought he was an earth bound ghost. The melody he was making with his flute was one of loss and mourning before coming to terms with that loss, while the moonlight gave his black clothes and glimmering blonde ponytail an ethereal grace as the wind blew around the blonde.

Silently he thought he heard the sound of a chain snapping, but didn't stop playing.

If one were to look properly, one would see that the wind wasn't blowing around the blonde, it was circling around him like a invisible, silent and gentle cocoon that resembled a mother's embrace.

******Broken Faith******

Asuna stiffened in the hot springs and looked up at the bright moonlit sky. "Is something wrong Kagurazaka-san?" the swordswoman beside her asked.

Shakily Asuna replied, "N-no… I just thought I heard something."

Setsuna frowned but didn't push the matter.

******Broken Faith******

This haunting moonlit scene was what Konoka stumbled into after having heard the haunting familiar melody and followed the sound till she climbed up onto the roof knowing exactly who was playing the melody. There was something she needed to speak to Naruto about.

She silently stood there and waited for the melody to finish since It didn't feel right to disturb the flute playing blonde.

It felt proper, like she was paying her last respects to somebody, but she didn't know exactly who it was. It just gave her that impression.

It was a few minutes later once the melody stopped.

They were silent for a few moments before the blonde spoke to fill in the silence, "You wanted to ask me something?"

Startled the brown haired girl tried to defend herself, "Ho-how did you know?"

Even though his back was to her, Konoka could literally feel the smirk coming off in waves from the blonde. "You don't have to act innocent around me you know. You, Konoka, are a very naughty girl. I knew that you weren't asleep the night I gave the flute to Asuna. I knew you were standing behind your door. I also knew you weren't exactly sleeping when you were kidnapped. Although I could only guess that the reason you didn't ask immediately ask Asuna and Negi about what happened and why they happened was because you wanted to trust them and let them tell you on their own schedule.

Hence the reason you are here, you knew you needed information to prepare yourself so you came to me, knowing I wouldn't care either way and could trust me to give you the truth without your friends knowing any better until they tell you. Am I right?"

Konoka huffed in indignation, "If you know me so well, why didn't you say anything earlier?"

The blonde shrugged, "It wasn't my problem. And you made a mistake, I promised your grandfather I wouldn't tell you anything because of a promise he made to your father."

Konoka's shoulder slumped, the blonde had been her last hope for unravelling this mess until the blonde spoke again. "Of course…. I promised I wouldn't say anything on my own volition, but I didn't promise NOT to say anything if you came to ask me on your own. Besides, given the way things are going, it's likely you would have found out everything by the end of this trip anyway. I'm just making sure you will be prepared and that makes my job easier."

Naruto didn't mention that he had been counting on that fact since last night and had been preparing himself for this conversation.

"So…you're going to explain to me what heck are Negi and Asuna?"

"Nope, I won't explain anything to you. I WILL answer any questions you ask though so be sure to make them the _right _questions."

Konoka silently pondered for a while before starting, "Those weird flashy things they can do? Is it really magic?"

"Yep, although Asuna doesn't really have magic of her own, she's just borrowing from Negi in order to protect her friends." The way Naruto emphasized friends didn't escape the observant brunette's notice. "What do you mean? Her friends are in danger? Who?"

Naruto looked directly into her eyes, "You."

And Konoka's breath hitched.

******Broken Faith******

"Good morning Iincho, did you have a good night's sleep?" The class president could only glower at the blonde in front of her at breakfast and was currently sporting a _very _wide smile

Furtively, she looked around to see if anybody had noticed them talking before stomping on Naruto's foot under the table, although it didn't seem to affect her adversary at all since that damned smile was still stuck on his face, before leaning over to whisper furiously at Naruto, "If you tell anybody what happened last night I'll _kill_ you!"

Rather than looking cowed at all, Naruto just smirked before leaning forward and giving a very husky whisper in Ayaka's ear, "Oh I won't tell anybody you like bondage, but next time you want to sleep next to me, just let me know."

Ayaka failed rather spectacularly at hiding her equally spectacular blush and the sudden shiver, prompting another knowing smirk.

Failling to even ruffle his feathers she could only seethe and stomp over to join the rest of the girls who were collectively over the moon about the new 'collectible card' that Nodoka obtained as a prize for…kissing Negi. Konoka appeared to be sulking at not being able to participate in the games.

He had to give it to Konoka, she was one hell of a cunning actor.

Grabbing a toast he moved to join the rest of 3-A's Guardian Angels when he noticed them talking about last nght's….game and the resulting Pactio cards.

Approaching them from behind he gave a cursory "Yo." and smirked as all of them jumped, startled by his sudden presence. "What you guys doing?"

"Kinpatsu-sama!"

'S-_Sama?the heck?'_ everyone there simultaneously thought as Chamo greeted his new hero before bouncing off Asuna's shoulder and started worshipping the blonde's feet. Naruto just raised one eyebrow before casually flicking the rodent off his feet, causing everyone who had been staring at the duo to sweat drop.

He deadpanned at everyone, "Make sure he stays away from me, I don't want to get infected by his pervert disease, I know he was with the red haired reporter last night probably orchestrating the game and getting his rocks off at the same time."

All the girls present blanched and glowered at the ermine, even shy quiet Nodoka, as it scurried over to Negi who just laughed sheepishly, and hid in his jacket, screaming "Help me Aniki!" the whole while.

"Anyway, what were you all talking about?"

"Just the Paction cards, now, Negi has two partners, although we haven't made it official with Nodoka-nee chan yet," a muffled voice replied from inside Negi's sweater.

"Yeah, Asuna-san just learnt how to summon her _Hamanotsurugi _on her own, hey wait, Naruto-nii san, you have a pactio card as well right?" Negi said.

"Yeah," Naruto replied before casually bringing out his own card and passed it to Negi who inspected it closer than he had the first time while Asuna peeked over his shoulder. "Naruto-nii san, can you bring out your pactio? I want to see it like Asuna-san's fan!"

"Errr… I'd rather not, it's too embarrassing and flashy to be using it outside of battle."

"Awww…. Please?" then Negi reinforced his pleas with his devastating puppy eyes. Naruto only sighed before agreeing, holding the card he incanted, "_Adeat." _A low flash lit the area caused everyone to avert their eyes before everyone took in the eye candy with a bit of awe.

Naruto was someone you didn't easily forget, tall and lean with piercing and sharp features that demanded fear and respect in equal measures which was tempered by his laid back attitude. But now he cut an imposing figure. Nearly 6 feet tall of lean muscle, his hair had been slicked back and his features obscured by a white mask that caused everyone to shiver at the memories it invoked. A huge rifle was strapped to his back and his previous jeans and sneakers had not changed but his previous wind breaker had morphed into a body length fitting red trench coat with belts crisscrossing his chest with the unbelted portion flapping around his long legs in an unfelt wind.

Unnoticed, to everyone else, Asuna had blushed slightly at the sight of the skin tight trench coat that displayed Naruto's lean muscles. Muscles that she personally knew could be as hard as granite or gentle and firm when he wanted it to be from the time he had embraced and tickled her in his room.

Negi though had a confused expression, "Wasn't your trench coat and mask black the other night?"

When Naruto replied, everyone did a double take, his voice seemed to be muffled in some way by the mask, and now had a deeper more forbidding tone, "They can change colors to obscure my presence. Watch."

6 feet of lean muscle didn't walk, it stalked towards the opposite wall which was a light blue and as he leaned on the wall, his trench coat took on the exact hue of the wall, as did his mask."

Everyone gaped at the blonde, while Asuna pouted slightly at his very flashy Pactio compared to hers until she noticed the mask looked in her direction. Even though she couldn't see it, she somehow knew that he had winked at her causing her to blush again.

With an amused chuckle at the various expressions of awe and another call of _"Abeat." _Naruto's equipment vanished and was replaced with his original clothes causing everyone except Asuna to snap their jaws back into place. "So? Whats the plan for the rest of the day?"

"Uh..um, the dean gave me a mission to do. I need to bring this," he pulled out a sealed letter from inside his jacket to show to Naruto, "To the Head of the Kansai Magical Association."

Naruto was just about to say that he would follow Negi, because he was the most likely target other than Konoka anyway when he caught said girl who had been watching them from the side of her eye give him a slight shake of her head.

He inwardly smirked, it looked like Konoka was going to force a confrontation so that they confessed, whether they wanted to or not, "Good luck then. I'll be watching some of the other groups just in case that Monkey Lady comes back and makes a fuss. Although, if you find yourselves in trouble, take this knife and throw it on the ground. It'll let me know you're in trouble and I'll come as fast as I can." Before passing the marked kunai to Negi who looked at the blade in awe. This was probably the closest anyone ever let the kid to a real weapon.

Waving goodbye to them he proceeded to produce a few clones and settled himself near wherever Ayaka happened to be. Riling his fellow blonde up was as fun as watching Negi get flustered. He didn't move as though to appear to be actively following Ayaka, but he knew that she could see him out of the corner of her eye whenever she turned around. And when she did, he would smirk at her, mouth the word bondage and watch the poor girl turn red, whether in embarrassment or anger was debatable but he didn't really care. As long as she turned red and tried to splutter at him without her classmates realizing it, it was all good.

It was like poking a sleeping tiger in the eye, hide, watch it pace around in anger before going back to sleep, and then do it again. Ah, good times in Konoha.

He could still remember Akane giving him this weird look on her face, as if she was torn between smacking him, laughing and disbelief before doing a face palm and muttering something about idiots with a distinct lack of brain cells when he told her about his harmless pastime.

What? He was a thrill seeker.

And they didn't have roller coasters back then.

******Broken Faith******

He continued having fun by harassing Ayaka throughout her trip in Osaka with some of Group 4 and Group 3. It got to the point where Ayaka had a permanent tick mark on her temple and he started timing himself before his fellow blonde finally lost it and charged after him like a bull.

At least he was having fun until he noticed something. Sighing in disappointment like a child whose favourite toy was taken away he faded into the shadows of a dark alley.

Jumping through the rooftops until he found what he was looking for he landed in an abandoned lot with a lot of wisteria trees surrounding it. Cricking his neck and stretching his arms, he stood up straight and waited for it.

A stone spike suddenly burst from the ground, surprising him before spearing him through. Naruto coughed blood, a surprised look on his face as the lavender haired boy that helped Chigusa escape 2 days ago melted out of the ground in front of his injured body. A strangled look appeared on Naruto's face, that melting thing brought back bad memories of Orochimaru before the light left his eyes and his body went prone on the stone spike.

******Broken Faith******

**With Negi and Co. 30 minutes before Naruto was attacked. **

"Neh, Asuna? Can I ask you something?"

Asuna turned to look at her classmate with curiosity, "What is it, Paru?"

"You and Negi-sensei…..are you two going out together?" Negi only gaped while Asuna's reaction was far more drastic; she tripped and fell on a tanuki statue. Once she had gotten up, ignoring the lump on her head and proceeded to pull Negi's cheeks, "Ho-how can you say that! His just 10 years old! 10 years old! I would rather date Naruto!"

A sly smile spread on Haruna Saotome's face, "Oho? Naruto? No honorifics? You must be pretty close to him even after only 2 days."

Asuna spluttered, completely failing to say anything other then to make some choking noise and vaguely protesting hand gestures. Although her blush told a completely different story. Something the pervert detector in Haruna immediately noticed and filed away for future blackmail. "Ahahaha, gomen gomen, I was just joking," Immediately she tried to change the subject, something Asuna was silently thankful for and called out to the shy one at the back of the group clutching a book, "Neh Nodoka~ don't just stand there all day with a weird book, let's go take some purikura photos in that arcade together~ you can even take one with Negi-sensei" Haruna said with a knowing smile at the shy bookworm.

"Eh? Eeeeh?" but before she could say anything Haruna had already dragged her off while Konoka had jumped into the conversation as well, "Ah~ I want to take purikura as well, c'mon, let's go Se-chan, I want to take them with you."

Haruna immediately pushed Nodoka and Negi together into the booth and let them take a picture with a sly smile. After that, Negi took another with Asuna, Konoka took one with Setsuna, Yue, Haruna took another with Negi, and then everyone piled into the booth and took a picture together. Chamo sneaked into every picture while assuming what he thought was a cool pose.

Once that was done, they all wandered around the arcade, "We come all the way to Kyoto and we spend the day in an arcade?" Asuna commented with a sweat drop but Chamo whispered his opinion from inside Negi's sweater, "Aniki, Anee-san, play with them until you see a chance, then escape!"

"I-I guess you're right, ahahah."

The three of them joined the rest who seemed to be playing some sort of card game, "Eh? What are you playing?" Haruna cheerfully answered Negi's question, "It's a game about mages! We can get limited edition rare Kansai cards if we get the high score~"

"A-a game about mages? I-I guess I can try it…."

"Here, I can lend you my starter pack, "Yue passed a pack of cards to Negi who shyly tried his hand at the game and proved to be pretty decent at it until a strange boy wandered up to them and challenged Negi to a game.

Sadly Negi lost to the boy, "Aww… I lost…"

"No, no, you did very well for your first time playing Negi-sensei," Paru tried to comfort her disappointed homeroom teacher.

"That's right," the strange boy interjected with a wink, "You were pretty good, but you need to be better before you can be a _real_ mage. Anyway, see you around, Negi Springfield."

"Eh?" Negi stiffened, his senses on alert, "How did you know my name?" the stranger just smiled before pointing at the screen where his name was displayed in large letters. Negi laughed sheepishly. While he was watching as the boy accidentally bumped in Nodoka while he was leaving and the ensuing commotion, he felt a tap on his shoulder and Asuna's whisper "C'mon let's go. Everybody is busy" the red head turned to Setsuna, "We'll leave Konoka to you alright, Sakurazaki-san."

The swordswoman nodded, "You two be careful, I have a bad feeling about today."

"Alright, we'll try to come back as soon as possible."

Unknown to the three of them, Nodoka and Konoka had both noticed Asuna and Negi leave. Konoka had a slight frown; she had purposely interfered whenever the word Mage was mentioned in order to trigger a guilt trip. Or any reaction really. She had been disappointed but couldn't reliably interfere anymore than she already had.

******Broken Faith******

The stranger which had defeated Negi at the card game joined four figures hidden in the shadows of an alley. One of them was short and wore a Goth dress, another was shorter than even the swordswoman and had a face as bland as his clothes and a large Zenki stood behind the last person who was dressed in a kimono and various bandages. "Report," the one in a kimono demanded.

The stranger gave a mock salute before answering, "The teacher's name is indeed Springfield, but I didn't sense any hint of demonic aura around him, so even if he was the son of the Thousand Master, he probably doesn't have any connection to the demon from the other day."

The one with the blank face frowned for a split second, something wasn't adding up and slipped away before his companions noticed anything. The wolf boy had said he hadn't sensed any demonic aura, but then again the wolf half demon had been only ordered to specifically sense for the demonic aura that left his employer more paranoid then a monkey on speed. He on the other hand had noticed the residue aura of another powerful presence on Negi and Asuna but whoever the residue belonged to wasn't here. What was more, the aura, despite the lack of any demonic feel to it, gave a similar echo to the demon's signature in a weird way.

"I don't care, that western mage must have had something to do with that demon," A malicious smile spread on her face as her hand inched toward her stomach where a permanent scar remained as reminder of her humiliation for the rest of her life, "I'll pay you back tenfold for the pain and shame you caused me that day Negi Springfield. Kotarou, attack Negi and the red haired girl, distract them so they don't realise our main target is the Konoe heiress, Newcomer….Newcomer? Where did he go?"

Kotarou shrugged in response, "Whatever, Kotarou go attack them, you don't have to win, just stall them, take these charms and they'll help you trap them. Tsukuyomi and I will attack the heiress directly. Kukuku, the western mages' day of reckoning is at hand."

Kotarou didn't say it, but he suspected the encounter with the demon had unhinged his employer even more than was usual but he kept his silence. he didn't care either way, he was just interested in fighting someone strong.

******Broken Faith******

**Back with Naruto**

Fate inspected the body impaled upon his stone spike with a curious expression. He had tracked the powerful aura directly to a blonde person they hadn't encountered the first time around, and despite his slouched posture that Fate noticed while watching him, he was obviously competent enough to detect his own presence and lead him to an abandoned lot where their fighting wouldn't hurt any innocent passer bys.

And yet he was so easily taken down with a single attack? Something didn't add up.

Fate hated it when the world didn't add up.

Although he didn't have to worry for any longer when the prone body suddenly went up in a poof of smoke and a fist that landed on his chin was added to the equation and his confusion multiplied.

As he flew and flipped in mid air to land on his feet, he looked up to notice a perfectly healthy doppelganger of the person who had been impaled on the spike return his stare with equal impassiveness.

"What…was that? I know that hit you."

The blonde with his arms folded just shrugged when he felt another identical presence approach him from behind. Fate ducked and swept the feet of the assailant behind him with a low kick only to stare again as another exact doppelganger fell and disappeared with a puff of smoke.

He looked back at where the blonde was only to see 5 identical blondes stare back.

"You can create clones from air." Fate stated in a monotone that was colored with slight amusement.

He got another nonchalant shrug in reply. This annoyed him. Fate didn't like it when someone even more blank than him showed up. It was hard to use logic when there was nothing to build upon. Seeing the lack of reaction, Fate charged the group of blondes, only to get attacked from the side, a blonde jumped out of the trees and tried to hit him with a mysterious blue ball, the blank boy immediately ducked under the attack, catching the outstretched arm and elbowing the attacker in the side only for the body he attacked to explode violently.

Landing in the cloud of dust and smoke, his left side was slightly singed, he immediately calculated the odds, it was obvious the mysterious person was reluctant to attack him head on and depended on misdirection to land his hits, melting into the ground he made his way towards the group of blondes only to be surprised when all 5 of them scattered and proceeded to thrust that mysterious blue ball again into the ground exactly where he was.

This was getting ridiculous. It was as if the blonde knew where he was, even underground. Escaping with minimal injury he jumped out from the ground and sent a multitude of stone spikes at the blondes scattered all over the place, reluctant to get near anyone of them in case they did their exploding trick again. All but one of them were hit by the stone spikes and he noted that the clones seemed to be more sluggish than the one he assumed was the original.

Getting tired of all the misdirection he charged at the original full speed and landed a punch. This time he was pleased to note he didn't disappear in a puff of smoke. The blonde flipped around and used the momentum to dash back into the fray, they exchanged a few blows, carefully noting each other's style and level of power, Fate almost tripped when he heard the blonde's completely illogical first words.

"So... nice weather isn't it?" his tone was almost conversational, as if they were having a nice stroll in the park, not exchanging fists and kicks, taking advantage of the trip, the blonde grabbed the back of Fates head and slammed his head on his knee 3 times consecutively but before Fate was hit, he thought he saw the blonde's blue eys flash a different color for a split second, any further thoughts after that were knocked out his head when the 3rd knee bash, punched right through his weakened barriers.

Before his opponent could land a fourth hit, Fate reacted by breaking the blonde's grip and stepped into his guard before throwing the blonde over his shoulder in a basic judo throw.

When the blonde landed on the opposite side of the lot, he saw the blank boy dab his bleeding nose with one hand and look at his blood.

"You hit me."

Naruto would have chuckled if he wasn't so anxious. The newcomer seemed almost stunned in disbelief. "I did at that, by the way this might be a bit too late, but why are you attacking me?"

Fate swiped his bloody nose on his sleeve before turning his impassive stare back at the blonde, "That is private, but know that I have no grudge against you. In fact, I find it fun. It has been a long time since anyone made me bleed."

"I'm glad to know that. How is Chigusa doing by the way, is she already attacking Konoka? I already know Kotarou reached Negi shortly before you attacked me." This time Fate was sure his eyes flashed a different color, but he was too stunned to consider that fact properly even though his face didn't show it. "I'm afraid that now that you know about my mission, I cannot let you leave here alive. I'm very sorry, I truly had fun with you." Fate charged the blonde at full speed, he noticed the blonde's eyes widened slightly and it did his ego good to know that he outmatched the blonde in speed.

Only to almost lose his temper when his punch went straight through another puff of smoke. Warily looking around for the next attack, he waited for a few minutes before he decided that the blonde enigma had left the battlefield.

This really rankled.

He had been completely outmatched from the start although he KNEW that he was stronger and faster than the blonde.

As Fate left the battlefield, the concession he allowed himself to express his anger was to punch the ground and create a deep crater.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto slumped down in a side alley nearby Group 1, clutching his side, he had barely taken nothing more than a few glancing blows in that short exchange and already he could feel at least 2 cracked ribs. He had flashed to the nearest clone to his position once he decided he had finessed enough answers from the earth using boy. It had been very _very_ close.

Shortly before he felt one of his kunai being thrown, he had detected the faint presence; ultimately he had to confront the presence first before he could deal with whatever had caused Negi to throw that kunai rather than immediately leaving, so that he could protect Ayaka's group from whoever was following him. Once that was done, a clone he had discretely left behind while roof top jumping had dropped back out of sight before hiding in the trees and started gathering Natural energy for Sage Mode.

One hidden benefit of Sage Mode was that once he activated it and _became _one with nature, had he wanted to; _nothing _could find him since any tracking methods would just display him as part of the landscape.

That solved the question of just why Jiraiya was such a great Spymaster, he could be sitting beside you wearing nothing but a traditional ninja tarp and you wouldn't notice him unless you were actively looking.

Of course he never knew that Sage Mode had this ability until after he had lost his Sealed Hatred Form and Tailed Beast Shroud, when he had started looking towards increasing his mental faculties as well as fighting smarter and more efficiently by utilising what he had at his disposal and being creative. Part of the reason, he freely admitted to himself, was because of his self hatred of his old stupid and brash self that depended so much on Akane's youki source and neglected to properly explore his original skill set. ****Yes, that was a jab at canon****

Anyway, he had mentally ordered the Sage Mode clone to remain hidden in the trees rather than his original plan of dispelling it and passing the energy to the original once he had realized his opponent could hide in the ground as easily as he did in the air. The Sage Mode provided him with updates as to where Fate had been at any time while the original took the advantage.

To be honest though? Another reason he depended so heavily on misdirection and guerrilla tactics was because he knew in his currently thrice damned weakened state, he was no match for the boy and left as soon as he realized was happening elsewhere by activating his Rinnegan in flashes, to read the surface thoughts of the boy whenever he asked questions, enabling him to glean any answers as well as to avoid the majority of the damage the boy could apparently dish out.

Although he had to admit, the fact that the boy had no knowledge of his skill set and the surprise factor of his lackadaisical attitude that had allowed him to hide his current weakness in battle was the biggest factor in allowing him to sneak in hits to great effect. The next time wouldn't be so easy; the boy had already seen some of his arsenal and would be prepared the next time they clashed.

Slapping his cheeks, he squared his shoulders and prepared to flash to Negi, they were in trouble and he had no time to sit around and regenerate. Clutching his sides he flashed to where the kunai was.

Only to find that the fighting was already over and Negi had managed to defeat the wolf half demon he had recognized from Fate's thoughts. The half demon was currently throwing a tantrum and rolling around on the floor, shouting something about thunder and punches. Naruto stealthily crept around the wolf who hadn't noticed him and tried to sense if Negi was anywhere near them.

The results he got were mixed, they had been there but their presence was muted somehow. He started to move towards them, only to bump straight into some weird barrier in the way.

This really wasn't his day. Was this some sort of karmic retribution for bullying Ayaka?

He had absolutely no idea about how to dispel the modern day barrier; but things shouldn't have changed too much, knowing that all standalone barriers without someone constantly maintaining them usually required some sort of foundation; the most basic would generally consist of some sort of trigger mechanism at the four cardinal points. The blonde rooted around for a while before he hit the jack pot and found a spell tag hidden underneath a rock in the East quadrant.

Hurriedly he studied it for awhile to determine the barrier was a time space barrier mixed with an illusion spell. He still had no idea how to dispel it but he had an idea about how to bypass it. Looking at the place where the barrier was supposed to end, he threw a three pronged kunai and watched it vanish into thin air, although he couldn't see it, the homing signal on the kunai activated and he could feel it outside the barrier. Theoretically this should work, since it was a time space barrier, the Hiraishin which worked by creating time space tunnels would hopefully circumvent the barrier entirely. Talk about creative.

Crossing his fingers, he flashed to the kunai he could feel but couldn't see.

And found himself teleported outside the barrier successfully.

The blonde danced a little victory jig that he would've been appalled to be told that it resembled his perverted old mentor too much, before his body forcefully reminded his brain that he was lugging around a few cracked ribs and groaned before following the now completely clear tracks of Asuna, Negi and surprisingly Nodoka. Hopefully he would reach in time to prevent any major fuck ups and find out how Konoka was doing; if anything happened to her, it was totally be his fault for not giving Konoka one of his kunai.

******Broken Faith******

"Um…uh…. I guess you found out huh? I'm sorry for trying to deceive you but it was a secret." Negi said as he sipped some tea.

The three of them were resting after an intense battle, hidden between some rocks far from where they fought the wolf half demon.

"Ah…no, I had a vague idea anyway, demo…to think that Negi-sensei is a mage…its kind of exciting, like a fairy tale straight from the books," Nodoka shyly replied.

Meanwhile Asuna and Negi had a hushed argument about letting Nodoka into their secret, "Bu-but, didn't you say you didn't want Honya-chan involved in this kinda thing?" Asuna said.

"But..she already knows this much…"

Their conversation was loudly interrupted by Chamo, "But she could be useful! She has an unusually powerful item! It would be good to let a strong partner like her join us!" she ermine loudly shouted.

"Geh! Hentai ermine, don't steer the conver-"

"Yare yare, I don't appreciate you talking about my classmates like she's some item for you to keep, you rodent."

Everyone on the rock jumped, startled by the sudden addition to their group and they all spun around to see their only male classmate casually walking up to them with his hands in his pockets. "Naruto!" they all shouted at the same time and dashed at him.

Asuna reached him first and threw her arms around him in a bear hug, silently she noticed his flinch while the blonde himself chuckled at his exuberant welcome as Negi and Chamo joined Asuna in a pile on top of him. Nodoka was shyly smiling at the pile up from the sidelines.

"Alright alright, I get it, you guys missed me," then he turned serious, "I'm sorry I couldn't come when you threw that kunai, somebody attacked me, I presume he was one of the Monkey Lady's minions. I was able to determine that the Monkey Lady herself is going to attack Konoka, do any of you know where she is right now? I need to get there immediately before anything bad happens."

"Ahem." The chibi version of Setsuna cleared her throat. "I know where she is. She is currentl- Huh? Quickly something's wrong, she's at the cinema-Gurk." The chibi version fizzled for a bit before completely reverting into a piece of paper.

Naruto's expression turned grim and both Negi and Asuna were reminded of the time when Naruto had went ape shit at the Monkey Lady. Naruto quickly started emanating a commanding aura and snapped off a few orders in a commanding tone, a very different change from the laid back Naruto they had known, "Do either of you know anyway to find Setsuna and Konoka?" this questions was directed at the ermine and Negi who both felt their backs stiffened at sudden need to stand at attention, both of them glanced at the other before nodding, "I can reconstruct a Chibi version of myself with that paper the same way Setsuna did, but I'm not as proficient at it so my real body will have to be unconscious while the Chibi version traces the magic trail of Chibi Setsuna." Naruto thought for a bit before nodding, Asuna, Nodoka, do any of you have any medical items?" Nodoka raised her hand, inside she suddenly felt braver than she ever had, the feeling of being useful to somebody that needed her emboldened the usually shy girl, "I have a few bandaids and some energy drinks."

"Good, start patching Negi up while he prepares that spell. Negi can you're Chibi version carry this kunai while you're tracking Konoka and Setsuna?"

"We'll be slightly slower but yes." A short and curt answer.

"Good, get to work, take this kunai and throw it as soon as you reach there, I'm going get some rest until the signal is given." Naruto walked behind a rock out of view and slumped down unnoticed by the bustling duo of Nodoka and Negi. He clutched his side and closed his eyes to get a few scant seconds of rest.

"You blonde idiot."

Naruto gave a tired smile, Asuna's presence knelt beside him and he took comfort in it. "Yeah well, I'm you're idiot," he shot back to her with a teasing manner. Since his eyes were closed, he hadn't noticed the fiery blush that decorated the twin tailed girl's face.

"You got hurt in that attack didn't you?"

Naruto made a face, "Trust you to notice that I'm hurt, you seem to have a habit of doing that very easily." Naruto sighed, "I was still hurt from losing control that night, and the fact that my opponent was somewhat stronger than the usual mooks didn't help. But I was very lucky, he was surprised by my skills and I managed to get some useful information before I retreated."

**Play Gurren Lagann OST – No Helping It, I'll Just Suck it Up for One Hundred and Twenty Seconds.**

He felt a wet cloth gently wipe some scuff marks off his face but that wasn't what got his attention, the hand holding the cloth was trembling slightly, grasping the hand he held it to his cheek and savoured the coolness before asking in a concerned tone, "What's wrong? You're shaking like a leaf."

"I'm…I'm scared Naruto…. Before this when me and Negi fought Evangeline," Naruto had no idea who Evangeline was but he didn't think it was the proper time to ask, "It hadn't hit me yet because she was a classmate. I didn't think she would really hurt us."

Naruto felt her bury her face in his chest but didn't outwardly react other than to run one hand up and down her trembling back.

"But that fight Negi had with Koutarou, it really sunk in, they were fighting to hurt, maybe even kill. I'm just a normal middle school student…. I'm scared Naruto, this magic and fighting business is so far out of anything I've ever experienced. And then when Negi threw that kunai, I was expecting you to come and help us, it really really scared me when you didn't." she took a deep breath, "If Negi hadn't pulled that last second win, I'm scared to think what would've happened to us. And it wouldn't have stopped at just us, they would've gone on to hurt Konoka, maybe even the rest of 3-A."

Naruto just embraced the shivering the girl close to his chest and gave her whatever comfort he could. He really had no idea what to say, he wasn't some eloquent charismatic leader that had all the answers. So he just said what he felt was natural.

"I won't let it get that far Asuna, I promised you remember? I... failed once before…. And I won't fail again. I won't say that no one will get hurt but no matter what, we won't give up right? If there's something in our way, we beat it down. And if it keeps coming, we'll keep beating it down. If we can't, we'll get stronger and we'll get keep getting stronger together so we can tear it down until it quits trying to make US quit. We'll get strong enough so that nobody else has to fight, so that everyone can go home together in the end no matter who or what we have to fight. So don't cry alright? We'll get through this."

He would never know it, but those words would be the ones Asuna upheld as a pillars of truth that she lived the rest of her life by.

That they would all go home together in the end.

The two of them stayed like that and time felt like it had stopped for Naruto. He really hadn't meant to get so close or emotionally involved with the students of Mahora Academy but it appeared that Kami still had other plans for an old weapon of war like him.

And he couldn't find it in himself to resent Kami for it anymore.

**Play Gundam Seed OST – Fly Freedom**

The signal came and Naruto regretfully removed the cool palm from his cheek. Quietly he said, "I have to go Asuna, Negi is there already and we don't know how bad the situations is."

The girl buried in arms just removed herself without a word and swiped one arm across her face to wipe away the tears. Giving him a cheerful smile despite the red rimmed eyes, "Go kick some ass blondie."

Naruto gave her an equally wide smile and a thumbs up before he flashed away.

Had he stayed a while longer he would have heard the rest of the sentence.

"And come back to me you blonde idiot."

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note.**

**This is actually the start of one of those parts where I have already written a part of the fic. One of the best parts that inspired me. The reason why this came out so fast was because I just needed to recalibrate the written parts to match what was already written and published, add a few interesting and voila. One good to go chapter.**

**Enjoy. And review.**


	7. Cherry Blossoms and Tears

**Broken Faith 7**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Mahou Negima Sensei is owned by Akamatsu Ken. **

**Author's Note : **_Some concerns about an OOC Asuna. The way I see it, Asuna is a strong girl yes, but she's still a middle school girl and so are the rest of 3-A. Do you know why I think she didn't break down in canon at this point? Because even though she's afraid, she knows she's the only thing keeping Negi going. Even if he knows more about the situation then she does, he's still a 10 year old, she can't get comfort from him, and if he sees her break down as well, everything goes down the drain. Get it? In the manga, Akamatsu draws as if they're all cyborgs that use pure willpower and awesomeness as fuel and lack the ability to feel fear like normal humans. _

_That's what I'm doing. I've giving them those feelings, those fears, the fragility in humanity, that not even a transdimensional super ninja is invincible. Oh and let me be blunt, most of the entire fic will probably be Naruto-centric, I don't think I'm good enough to focus on development outside of Naruto's circle and I'm too lazy to write a lot of stuff from the manga._

_**Sountrack List**_

_Gundam Seed OST – Meteor_

_Akatsuki no Kuruma – FictionJunction Yuuka_

**Cherry Blossoms and Tears**

*******Broken Faith******

"Fu fu fu fu, let's begin Setsuna-sempai, Konoka-sama. I'm going to make both of you mine."

Setsuna's eyebrow twitched. She already had enough problems with her classmates assuming she and Konoka-sama had _that _kind of relationship, she didn't need another girl jumping in and making the situation worse. She felt Konoka pull on her sleeve and hide behind her, even if Konoka wasn't aware of what was going on, Setsuna knew that her oujou-sama could feel the tension.

And where was Negi and Naruto? The last bit of communication she received was just before she lost concentration when the Goth girl challenged her when Naruto just reached Negi, Nodoka and Asuna. They were late. And she didn't know if she could protect the passer bys here from the hostile Goth if a fight broke out.

Things weren't looking good.

Konoka observed the western styled girl that had a threatening smile on her face from behind Setsuna; she assumed this was Tsukuyomi, one of the people Naruto had warned her about. To be completely honest, she was afraid, this was supposed to be a normal day, but here was one of the people who had kidnapped her. Her hand trembled slightly.

Setsuna felt the trembling and placed her hand over Konoka's soothingly and tried to display as much confidence as she could. Even if she didn't feel it herself, "Don't worry Konoka ojou-sama, no matter what happens I'll protect you." before giving her a sincere smile.

"Se…Se-chan…"

Unfortunately that touching moment was interrupted, "Sakurazaki-san is cool isn't she, Ayaka?"

A black wig wearing Iincho just agreed wholeheartedly.

Setsuna stared at the crowd, "Eh? Eeeh?"

Both of them had just noticed the humongous crowd that had gathered to watch the 'show'.

Including their classmates.

Before Setsuna could say anything a black haired Iincho who was crying anime tears had grabbed her hand, "Sakurazaki-san! I'm moved by your love for Konoka-san! I'll lend you my strength!"

"I told you it's just a mistake Iincho~" Setsuna who was also crying anime tears at the ridiculous situation tried to knock some sense into her idiot classmates.

She was ignored and could only watch as Iincho started challenging her kouhai, "Ho ho ho! You there! Don't you have any reinforcements? We, Sakurazaki-san's classmates will help protect her love!"

"Gah! Tsukuyomi-san! This people are not involved, don't hurt them!"

"Ahahaha, Setsuna-sempai, you have very good friends. Very well my little pets wont hurt them. Too much. Hyakkiyakou!"

A bunch of little cute demonic looking things poofed out of a flurry of ofuda that Tsukuyomi had thrown in to the air.

Setsuna made a grim face and drew her nodachi one handed and a spare wakizashi she had procured after their last exchange. She had learnt from her mistake but whether or not it worked, remained to be seen.

Stepping in front of Konoka to shield her from the oncoming demons, she prepared the blades in a ready pose. Slashing in a wide arc, the first wave of demons faltered at the fierce expression on her face. Most chose to target others, these ran out of her range and Setsuna despaired. She couldn't leave Konoka's side, already she was being overwhelmed by the little demons as many more ran pass her to attack the crowd.

Soon screams rang out around the clearing as the demons started scratching, biting, flipping up skirts and pulling off clothes. Setsuna sweat dropped even as she cut down a few demons; apparently the summons had similar perverted tastes to Tsukuyomi.

Said girl just watched happily as chaos spread around her, the screams of pain and fear sent pleasurable shivers down her back, content to wait for Setsuna's attack until she felt someone approach her, "Arara, Newcomer-san. Chigusa-san was looking for you, you know. Naughty boy, running away and not doing your job."

Fate who had just arrived from his earlier fight just looked impassively at the surroundings, "That is nothing, I was tracking another member of Springfield-san's class that is very strong." A weird expression appeared on the usually impassive boy's face, "He got away from me, I expect him to appear here soon."

"He won't get away this time."

Tsukuyomi just gave a small "Ufufufu, so even someone can get away from the great Fate-sama," behind her gloved hand.

Then the girl turned unusually serious, "What will you do if Chigusa-san achieves her goal? _He _won't be happy if Negi dies."

"She won't, I fully expect Negi and his friends to succeed. Worst case scenario, logic dictates that we will stop her ourselves since her goals contradict _His_. Our mission here was solely to judge if Springfield's offspring poses a threat since the Thousand Master won't be able to stop us himself."

Tsukuyomi did another genteel lady's small laugh impersonation, "And the fact that you found someone that interests you has no bearing whatsoever on our goals right?"

Fate didn't bother to grace her with a reply.

"Ah…. If I'm not mistaken I think that you're 'friend' just arrived." Fate perked up and watched the person that had interested him so finally arrive.

******Broken Faith******

Ayaka was busy fending off the little ankle biting things as she and her classmates were gradually being overrun by the little things. In front of her Sakurazaki-san was busy fighting the majority of the little things that resembled traditional Japanese Youkais. She at least, was doing the best by far compared to the rest of her classmates present.

Behind her, Yue and Natsumi were being attacked by more Tsukumogami and a few Hitodamas, Whenever the Hitodamas made contact with their skin, it left slight burns but luckily they weren't hot enough to cause any real damage.

Haruna, despite her Juubei cosplay had little to no idea how to use her sword as seen by her recklessly swinging the bokuto.

Among all of them, she seemed to be only that had any real martial arts experience and was able to stand her ground, but even so she was faltering, there were too many little demons to fight properly with just her hands.

At the same time, her mind was so busy struggling to comprehend how CG could even cause pain and focusing on throwing a chochinobake that was trying to strip her kimono over her shoulder at the same time that she barely heard managed to recognize the distressed voice of Haruna trying to warn her about a kappa running at her from behind, "Iincho! There's a big Kappa behind you!"

'_Ayaka Yukihiro Ryuu Aijuu jutsu :_ Seichuka'and fluidy stepped into the Dai Kappa's guard before using its own weight against it and flipping it around like a Ferries wheel before landing headfirst on the floor.

Because she was preoccupied with the Kappa the blonde zaibatsu heiress turned around slightly too late to see a large and heavy looking Maneki Neki Tsukumogami about to squash her from above. Her eyes widened and her body froze as time seemed to stop for her, not that she expected to be able to do anything anyway; it was twice as large as her. She silently admitted in the silence of her soul that a death from being squashed by a statue was not the way she wanted to go. She wanted to go, surrounded by friends and family on her bed in the family mansion in Worcestershire. Friends and family that hopefully included two certain red heads and a blonde man. One was her first crush and best friend, and the last? The first person to not be intimidated by her family's money and influence. Although it was debatable whether he even knew about them.

***Maneki Neko's are usually made of wood or porcelain, imagine how heavy of the size of the one in canon would be.***

**Play Gundam Seed OST - Meteor**

Ayaka frowned, in her moment of death, she expected that the last thing she would hear before passing on would be her beloved Negi's voice, so why the heck was she hearing the blonde idiot's voice instead. What in the world was wrong with her?

"Yare yare, be careful bondage girl, I can't always be there to save your ass."

There that voice was again. Even when she was going to die, her imagination's representation of Naruto was calling her 'bondage girl'.

In the side of her eye she noticed a flash of royal purple and gold fittings before her eyes widened for another reason. The blonde really was here.

'_Asura Ryuu : Kaimon, Dai Ichi no Michi.'_

A simple Iaijutsu sword slash from the hip with a simultaneous burst of power from opening the First of Eight Gates cut the descending Maneki Neko in half causing two halves to land on either side of Ayaka as opposed to _on _her.

Ayaka could only stare.

The blonde was decked out full royal purple and gold _O-yoroi, _four katanas strapped across his back, while another four at the hip, two on each side. The helmet's two large prongs circled a reverse maple leaf _datemono_ and added another feet to his already intimidating height, his long blonde hair which was braided into 9 ponytails flailed in the wind.

His posture straight and proud as he stared eye to eye with the impassive boy watching him from the bridge.

Everyone in the crowd clapped and hooted at the new arrival, while whispers about an enactment of _Gojo Bridge_ was bandied around the crowd. Well among anyone who wasn't being attacked anyway.

"Negi, go help Setsuna, I'll deal with the newcomer. Bondage girl, you get back, it's not safe here."

"Hai, Naruto-nii san!"

The voice of Negi-sensei was enough to snap Ayaka out of her daze but before she could do anything she was pushed back by the rushing crowd. The blonde dashed forward, faster than anyone wearing that much armor had any right to, throwing away the handle of a broken katana he drew two more from his hip in a back handed grip, skidding between Haruna and Natsumi, he spun with the momentum in a whirlwind of blades, cutting the small demons into pieces before fluidly stopping and throwing both katanas in the air and pulling another 10 kunai from under his armor and launching all of them at the demons harassing the rest of the classmates present.

As he spied the impassive boy that had started to move towards him from the corner of his eye, he stopped long enough only to bark a short order, "All of you! Get away from here, it's not safe!" before dashing towards his advancing target again, leaving a blushing Chizuru, Yue and Kazumi on the ground half naked.

Right before he reached the boy he leapt in air and grabbed the earlier two katanas and brought them both down for an overhead strike.

'_Asura Ryuu : Kaimon, Sandaime no Michi!'_ he roared as his blades clashed with a stone sword his opponent had materialized from somewhere, the only proof his attack had any effect whatsoever was the crater that had formed underneath the boy's feet as the force from the attack was blocked.

Before Fate had time to react, the blonde had let go of the two breaking katanas before dropping into a crouch and pushed up, slashing the distracted Fate with another katana. Fate leaned back to avoid the upward slash and snapped a kick into Naruto's jaw before both of them leapt backwards for a lull in the fighting as the crowd 'oooh and aaah'ed at the flashy sword play.

"May I know your name?"

Underneath the kabuto, Naruto sweated, his body as tense as a drawn bow, "Naruto. Namikaze Naruto, seat 32 of 3-A, and you?"

"Fate. Fate Averruncus….. I look forward to making your acquaintance."

Naruto gave a small laugh and pulled off his kabuto before throwing it to the side, the thing was heavy even though it was merely a prop he had appropriated from a costume store. "It's good to meet you too. I'm sorry bout leaving you so early last time, I had some pressing engagements."

"I know, but I expected you to come here soon after you revealed that you knew about the attack."

"I see…. Me and my big mouth huh?" Naruto gave a lopsided grin before his face turned grim again. "Would you mind if I went and helped my friends?"

The reply he received was a side slash from a charging Fate; he blocked it with the katana in his arm before kicking Fate back, "I didn't think so, very well. Let's dance."

Unlike last time where he was defensive, Naruto charged, simultaneously throwing the katana in his hand at Fate and drawing another two katanas, one clashed with the stone sword while Naruto pivoted and slashed again under Fate's guard, only to be blocked by another stone sword before Fate flicked his left hand to lock both of Naruto's katana's together while his free sword moved in a swift thrust. Leaning slightly to his left he inwardly grimaced as it wasn't enough and Naruto only suffered a thin cut to his cheek, nonetheless, he was standing and he had the upper hand in position, letting go of his sword like Naruto had did, it dematerialized before he landed a jaw shattering back hand from the thrust position. Naruto rocketed backwards and skidded for a bit from the force of the blow before dashing back in, and they started clashing blades again.

A frown appeared on Naruto's face as opposed to Fate's blank one as the blonde silently mused. The white haired boy was a far greater swordsman then he was as he failed to block a downwards slash that cleaved off his _kata yoroi, _on the other hand, every slash that he landed seemed be deflected or lessened by some sort of barrier. Bare punches caused the same effect. Deciding that he was going to lose if it kept up, he changed his rhythm and twisted his sword to score a thin slash on Fate's side before ducking a slash. Naruto launched from his crouched position in an attempt to mule kick Fate only for his feet to be caught by the boy.

Using the momentum from the kick, Fate slammed Naruto on the ground again and again before throwing the blonde away before Naruto could kick free with his free leg. Landing on the other side of the bridge he coughed some blood before he felt something bump into his back.

Naruto grinned, this was the change he needed. "On three?"

"On three."

"Three!"

Both him and Setsuna jumped before both of their feet met in mid air and they both kicked off and rocketed towards their respective opponents, aided by the extra speed he threw two katanas he had in his hands and pulled his last one out along with a kunai in his left hand and swiftly slashed Fate before discarding his weapons again, grasping Fate's forearms in mid air and forcing them apart, he twisted his body and kicked Fate with both feet in the face.

The boy was obviously disoriented by the kick and the sudden shift from sword fighting to close quarter melee combat and didn't have time to stop Naruto's combo.

Fate flew back only to be halted by the grip on his left arm before it pulled him back into another fist to the face, shaking of his daze he tried to punch back only for Naruto to twist the arm in his grip and block the punch using Fate's own hand before slipping his body underneath the arm he was holding, _'Let's see if that stupid barrier of yours stops this,'_ and jerked it completely out its socket in what looked like a modified judo move.

Naruto gave an evil grin that Fate couldn't see as he heard a slight gasp from behind him. '_FINALLY. Something that actually works, now I'd love to see you keep that blank face while I break you bit by bit._'

Taking advantage of the pain Fate was showing, he fluidly continued his barrage at the off balance Fate. Slipping from his position so that he was standing behind Fate, the blonde lodged another hand at the elbow joint and pulled violently with his other hand.

Judging by the strangled choke, he had probably dislocated Fate's elbow, maybe even broke something as a bonus, completely making Fate's entire left arm useless before he slipped one foot between Fate's legs and flipped Fate over like he had seen Ayaka do barely minutes ago, unfortunately Fate halted his fall by planting his healthy hand on the ground and reversed his momentum into a kick to Naruto's chin.

Naruto flew and landed on his back, his breathing ragged before clenching his jaw and struggled to get back in his feet. He didn't have the chakra to keep up his current abilities and was getting dangerously weak.

A shout from somewhere above, distracted him and he looked up to see Negi and Konoka surrounded by the Monkey Lady, her two puppets and what looked like a summoned demon pointing a bow at the two of them. Inwardly he cursed, what in Kami's name made Negi lead Konoka into a dead end. Not just any dead end, a 30 foot drop dead end.

He glanced around before yelling out, "SETSUNA! ABOVE!" Setsuna immediately kicked Tsukuyomi away from her before she glanced at where Naruto was pointing; fear suddenly filled her face before she took the chance to look back at Naruto.

Naruto looked back at where Fate was charging at him and did some light speed calculations before turning back to Setsuna, a silent and instant conversation passed between two warriors before Setsuna's face firmed with resolve and nodded before sprinting towards Naruto, ignoring the fuming Tsukuyomi, leaping at him Naruto grasped her outstretched arm, spun around and rocketed Setsuna towards Negi and Konoka.

He could only hope she got there in time as he was stabbed through the stomach from behind by a very pissed Fate.

******Broken Faith******

Negi and Konoka panted as they ran up the stairs of a traditional castle. Well Konoka panted, Negi didn't need to breath at the moment. They barged through a _shoji _only to find the Monkey lady had cornered them in the upper most room. Negi inwardly panicked as the lady ranted about her superior tactics, quickly glancing around he pulled Konoka down from a magic blast as the duo ran towards their only escape, a window leading out to the balcony.

"Boom!" the window where they had just escaped from was widened from another blast of magic, "Hurry Konoka! Climb the steps, we need to get away!"

They avoided another blast but soon they had nowhere else to run to. Behind them was a 30 foot drop and in front of them was a demon with an arrow unerringly pointed at them. Negi stepped in front of Konoka as if to shield her and clenched his teeth.

This was bad. This was very bad.

The Monkey Lady laughed evilly before declaring, "Setsuna Sakurazaki and the blonde fool! Stop interfering if you don't want your oujou-sama hurt. Can't you see this arrow pointed at her?"

Konoka was scared. She was very scared, but she could see Negi was even more scared then her, judging by his clenched jaw and shaking hands but wouldn't back down. Placing one hand on his shoulder she tried to calm him down so that they could think their way out of this mess easier while secretly gathering her magic, for? Anything really.

Negi's closed fist trembled in impotent anger when he heard Konoka speak, "its ok Negi, Se-chan said she'd definitely protect me no matter what, she'll definitely come to save us."

Unfortunately before she could say or do anything else, a strong wind blew at that very moment and the two of them stumbled on the edge of the roof causing the demon to release his readied arrow, "WAAA, you idiot demon! What did you shoot for? We're going to be in big trouble if the Ojou-sama dies!"

Negi clenched his teeth as time slowed and Konoka froze in her steps at her impending death. Throwing himself in front of the arrow failed as it just pierced the construct's body, spinning around to shout "Konoka!" with a worried tone, Negi could only helplessly watch as the arrow sped towards Konoka's heart.

Only to be blocked by Setsuna's shoulder who had miraculously shown up with a fierce look on her face.

******Broken Faith******

Years later if anyone asked Konoka what she felt at the time, she would say that she wasn't worried that she was falling to her death along with Setsuna, her first friend.

All she could think at the time was that she was praying for everything Naruto had told her to be true, that she was praying against all hope that she had successfully created a spark of flame that night in Kyoto and it wasn't all just a dream, that all she wanted was to heal her first friend's wound.

Everyone else could only watch the slow train wreck as two girls fell off a castle's roof. Everything after that was a complete blur when a flash of light caused everyone to avert their eyes and most of them couldn't believe their eyes to see a girl floating over water, radiating light like some Goddess had decided to come down to earth and grace everyone with her presence as the arrow wound in the girl in front of her slowly sizzled and closed like a miracle.

Everyone watching clapped as the samurai, that had arrived earlier, and was now dripping some really convincing red paint walked over to the two stunned girls and bowed and waved to them, "Thank you everyone for enjoying our production in Cinema Town, please come again and don't forget to tell your friends and family and throw your litter in the trash cans available at every corner!"

The crowd clapped and walked away loudly discussing the amazing CG and actors.

******Broken Faith******

"Tch, damn it, we missed our chance. But that was a very eye opening experience, we got to see that Oujou-sama's power first hand. Very impressive. Now I know the plan will work for sure. We'll retreat for now." She turned around, her kimono flapping in the wind and walked passed a disappointed Tsukuyomi and a blank Fate, before doing a double take and turned around to an cock an eyebrow at very battered Fate. "What happened to you, Newcomer?"

Since no one around truly knew who he was other then Tsukuyomi, only she noticed the slight twitch of his face. The equivalent to a frown from any other person.

**Flashback**

Fate almost grinned in satisfaction as he finally felt his sword stab into the blonde's gut, but everything else was driven out of his mind when the blonde pivoted, wrenching the sword of his hand, slamming an elbow into his face before throwing him over the shoulder, while he was struggling to get up, he absently noticed that he was right in the middle of all the katana's the blonde had thrown earlier.

He started to move forward again when something suddenly kicked him airborne from underneath before a lot of somethings started punching his limp airborne body, when he reached the peak of his upward momentum, something grasped both his arms and he felt a foot step on the back of his head and twist so that he was falling face first, before him and that something dropped down to earth like a meteor. As he was falling he absently noted that all the katana's that were previously strewn about the floor were no longer there but he had currently more pressing matters. Like the impending floor.

Naturally introducing his face to the floor in that manner wasn't very pleasant.

In fact, before he felt that something step off the back of his head, he heard a slight mutter,

"2-0. See you next time Chibi."

Surprisingly the Chibi comment hurt a lot more than the 2-0 did.

**End Flashback**

"Nothing, that blonde was an unexpectedly good fighter. We would do well to be careful of him next time."

"Hah, we've contracted an army of demons, that blonde is no worry, in fact, if the demon from the other day shows up, it will lose as well. Let's go, we have a castle raid to plan."

"Very well."

******Broken Faith******

"Hahaha…. That was a very big mess. Luckily no one found out about magic, eh Setsuna?"

"Ye…yes….Naruto-sama?"

'Sama tte!'

"Guh? What's with the sudden honorific's, wait why are you shaking? Oi? You're scaring me, Konoka already healed you right? Is something still wrong? You got more wounds in that fight?"

Naruto and Setsuna were in a back alley waiting for Konoka to finish changing, Naruto had already ditched and burned his blood soaked armor while Setsuna only had to change the robes.

Currently she was helping him bandage the wound in his gut, when the current conversation happened out of Konoka's earshot. Or at least she thought so.

"N-no…." Setsuna suddenly knelt in a _dogeza_ front of Naruto, who was leaning against an alley wall, "I owe you a debt of blood and honor, you allowed me to keep my promise to her and reach Konoka-ojou sama in time to prevent grievous injury at the cost of your own health. Ask of me anything so that I can repay this debt of honor."

Naruto kept quiet and stared intensely at the kneeling Setsuna. Acting carefree and dismissing the act would only insult her warrior's honour as well as imply that the help he imparted was insignificant, meaning that he thought Konoka was insignificant.

Naruto sighed; he really hated being formal sometimes. "Raise your head, Setsuna Sakurazaki." Stiffening at the formal tone, Setsuna moved into a _seiza _but her posture was still submissive to the blonde, "Are you ready to sacrifice anything to repay that debt of blood and honor?"

Setsuna stiffened, her honor demanded that she repay the debt and agree, even if he asked for sexual favors or her loyalty. It wasn't backed by any legal forums, but her honor had dictated her life thus far, and she didn't intend on abandoning it now. The fact that she knew the blond was honourable was an added plus, and she didn't think he would ask for something too extreme, but the risk was there, nonetheless she took the chance and decided to trust in the blonde's honor so she answered his question in the affirmative.

Naruto nodded as though thinking about something before he did something unexpected.

He gave her a thumbs up and a lopsided grin, "Then Setsuna Sakurazaki hear my decision, in return for blood and honor owed, I ask for your hand in friendship."

Setsuna stared.

Naruto kept on smiling.

She stared some more.

He started sweating.

She kept on staring.

His smile faltered, "I-is something wrong?"

She finally broke the stare and blushed with averted eyes, "It-it's nothing, I was ju-just thinking you are an honourable person."

Naruto scrunched his eyebrows at the unexpectedly shy and soft tone.

"I accept your terms," she thrust out her hand at Naruto, "I, Setsuna Sakurazaki am proud to call you my friend."

Naruto smiled and grasped her hand in a handshake. "Anyway, we'll be fine here, just need to rest for a bit, why don't you go see why Konoka is taking so long to change so we can hurry and join Negi and the rest."

He watched her hurry away to another building before he smirked and gave the plank beside him a soft kick.

A small "Kyaa~" was heard and Konoka stumbled out from behind. She pouted at the smirking blonde before speaking, "Mou~ Naruto you meanie."

The blonde just smirked.

Konoka gave up and sat beside the blonde, handing him a bottle of water before she tried to tease him again, "Looks like someone has an admirer~"

Naruto sipped the water and stared blankly at the girl, "Who?"

Konoka just sighed, why were boys so dense? "You of course! Didn't you see Setsuna blushing!"

Naruto's blank face stayed and Konoka waited for a few moments before realization _finally _dawned on the blonde's face. She smirked at her victory until she heard him tease her back, "Why? You jealous?"

Konoka kept her face carefully blank and timed her reply, "Oh, I don't mind and a threesome sounds like fun."

Water went down the wrong way.

******Broken Faith******

Asuna sat there, drinking tea with Nodoka and Negi, but she couldn't help but fidget and glance at the horizon every few minutes whenever Negi or Nodoka didn't notice. _'Whats taking Naruto so long? I mean, Setsuna, Konoka and Naruto.'_

When a few silhouettes appeared in the horizon, her heart missed a few beats as she leapt up along with Negi and Nodoka. Together they ran towards the figures, confident was their three friends.

'_Funny, why are there 6, not three silhouettes?'_

When the mist cleared, she gaped; standing there was Setsuna, Konoka, Naruto, Yuecchi, Kazumi, and Paru.

"Why are _they _here?" she demanded a heated whisper from Setsuna and Naruto, although Asakura heard the whisper.

Setsuna sweat dropped, "Asakura-san had some sort of GPS locator stuck on Konoka. They met up with us halfway here and insisted on following us no matter what."

"Hehehe, you're 100 years too fast to escape me so easily," Kazumi said.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her and she immediately shut up. She knew very well that the only reason she was allowed to come along was because of the others. Otherwise Naruto would've done something and left her unconscious body in an alley. Her body shivered again at the thought of _methods _that might be used to make her faint. It _still _didn't know what to feel around the blonde.

"Do you think this is some sort of game? Negi almost _died_ you know." Negi, who happened to be piggybacking Asuna cried anime tears.

Behind them, the four girls who were unaware of magic were cheerfully chatting, "Uuooo, It has quite the atmosphere doesn't it? Let's go everybody!" Haruna loudly shouted cheerfully.

Asuna finally noticed the girls running towards the entrance, "Urk! Baka! That place is enemy headquarters! It's dangerous!"

"Th-there's someone coming out," Negi said.

When they finally saw exactly _what _was coming out, their jaws dropped.

A whole line of priestess uniform wearing women were lined up, together they all chanted, "Welcome back Konoka ojou-sama~"

Konoka blushed embarrassedly while behind her Asuna and Negi stared confusedly. Weren't these people the enemy?

Asuna turned towards the person who would know most about Konoka's background, Setsuna, "Sa-sakurazaki-san! What is all this?

Setsuna answered sheepishly "Um… well basically this is the Kansai Magical Association Headquarters….as well as Konoka-ojou sama's personal home…." Setsuna trailed off with a blush.

Naruto leaned against a pillar with a vacant expression that said he didn't care either way as he looked at the trees lining the path with something resembling nostalgia burning deep inside his chest. He hadn't seen this many Sakura trees in a while. Not since _then._

Something no one noticed.

"Why didn't you say so earlier Sakurazaki-san?"

The reason for her earlier blush became apparent when she replied, "I made a mistake of judgement, I assumed that it would be dangerous for Konoka-ojou sama to come near the main house because an eastern mage was attacking us along with a Shinmei Ryuu swordswoman. If I knew the main branch weren't hostile we could have avoided the Cinema Town fiasco entirely and just stayed together before heading here directly." she blushed again, "A-anyway, if we enter the main house… I mean main headquarters; we should be safe from any attacks."

Together all of them walked in, following the long cherry tree lined main path, surrounded by chattering priestess and falling sakura blossoms. It was altogether a very beautiful scene like something from a _shoujo manga_. Especially since there were only two males as far as anyone could tell.

Then Asuna noticed something and scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, _'Why is Sakurazaki-san walking so close to Naruto?'_

Ignoring the question, she hurried to catch up with everyone.

******Broken Faith******

Negi looked around in awe, completely ignorant of the whispered conversation between Asuna who sat beside him and Konoka. Together all eight of them nervously waited for the Kansai Magic Association Leader, which apparently turned out to be Konoka's father_. 'Wait, eight? There's an empty cushion at the very back of the group. Where's Naruto nii-san?'_

He spun around looking for his self appointed big brother before nudging Asuna.

"Naruto's missing, Kagurazaka-san, do you think something happened?" Asuna made a concerned face and was about to reply when they were interrupted by the raising of the bamboo blinds in front of them.

A lean elder man with a rather gaunt face walked out, dressed in the trappings of a Japanese priest.

"Welcome, Asuna-kun, Konoka's classmates and homeroom teacher, Negi." He intoned. His voice was soft but firm.

Asuna blushed, "Tastefully wonderful…" causing the rest of the girls to gape in shock, "Geh? You're tastes are weird!" all the girls simultaneously declared from behind Asuna.

Negi ignored all of them and pushed his concern for his blonde student aside for the moment before speaking in a respectful manner, "From the East's leader, Mahora Academy's Dean, Konoe Konoemon, to the West's leader, please accept this letter."

"Ahaha, I've received the letter," he replied in an equally formal manner, It was a tough job wasn't it?"

Negi sheepishly laughed, "N-no…ahaha…"

Eishun glanced at the letters for a bit before sweat dropping at the first page although the interesting request his Father-in-law made at the bottom of the page had him quirking his eyebrow, looking back at the expectant faces in front of him he spoke, "Ma ma, no need to be so formal anymore. This is fine, in appreciation of eastern leader's will, the west will officially open negotiations with the east the end the discord between us. Please tell him that Negi."

Haruna whispered to Kazumi, "Discord? Yakuza fighting over territory?"

Kazumi shrugged then sweat dropped, "I really doubt it, he looks like one good hit will make him faint, and Konoemon-sama is so old that if he bent over to pick up a bat, he would probably slip a disk."

Both the men in question sneezed.

Konoemon sneezed on his current _Go_ partner. Eishun just sneezed.

Eishun rubbed his nose a bit before continuing sheepishly, "Excuse me, anyway, you have to descend the mountain before you can leave, but the sun is already setting. I insist that you and your friends stay the night. We'll prepare a banquet and roo-" "Yatta! Lucky!" Eishun laughed at the girls' exuberance, "Anyway, we'll prepare rooms a well for all of you tonight."

However Negi had to put a damper on the girl's celebrations, "Umm... I'm sorry but we're all in the middle of a school trip, we can't stay for long."

"That's alright; we'll prepare substitutions so no one notices that you are missing."

Negi smiled in resignation, "Very well, but at the moment we have one person missing, have you seen him?"

The girls and Asuna all started whispering about the missing member when the most unlikely source replied, "Ah…. Naruto-san said he was uncomfortable in formal settings. He is waiting outside the hall at the moment." Setsuna said.

Asuna frowned a bit, why had the blonde chosen to tell Setsuna instead of her, no, instead of both of them? And since when was HE bothered about something insignificant like that? Something was up. But she ignored the slight weight settling at the bottom of her stomach when Negi started talking to her about something. At least they knew he was safe.

******Broken Faith******

A sweat drop ran down her face as she looked at her partying friends before she looked at her cup's contents suspiciously, "Th-this…isn't alcohol right?" Konoka answered Asuna's comment, "No no, its not alcohol, ahaha…"

Opposite her and Konoka, Setsuna and Negi was approached by Eishun, "Setsuna," his soft voice rang out, Setsuna stiffened before adopting a kneeling position to show respect for her faction's leader, "Th-this is, for the leader to speak to someone lowly like me..."

"Hahaha… don't be so formal... you were always like that. Ever since you were young" he added with a mutter, "Anyway, I wanted to thank you for guarding Konoka so faithfully for these past two years. It must have been hard, fulfilling my selfish request,"

Setsuna shook her head and gave a sincere smile, "You don't have to thank me, Konoe-sama, it was my pleasure to do it, and in fact I should be thanking you for giving me the chance to do something I always wanted." She grimaced, "But today…I nearly failed, it was only thanks to Naruto-san that I didn't and Konoka-ojou sama's power was awakened because she needed to heal someone like me."

"It's alright, sooner or later it would've been inevitable, rather than expressing regret, you should be happy, she forcefully awakened her powers because she wanted to heal you, her treasured friend. Besides that, it seems that the Botched Pactio she tried to make with Negi had hastened the process anyway. But where is this Naruto-san?"

Konoka had learnt to be discreet in this huge place. Growing up, she had always been a rather curious child. Thus it was that she realised something fishy was going on in her abnormally large house.

Her parents and the people around them were reluctant to let her out and have friends like the princesses in the books always done.

Her friends were always monitored from the shadows.

The household members _always _hushed each other when she came near. Her parents didn't appear to work, their retainers seemed to be able to afford everything easily even though they had no apparent source of income despite living in what seemed like a Shinto Shrine. They didn't even have visitors like the other shrines she had seen and she always wondered about that.

Being a curious child, she had learnt to be discreet so she could try to solve the puzzle that was her family.

So she learnt how to hide her presence early on and eavesdropped on conversations around the compound. Although she admitted up till recently her efforts only had a small degree of success because they were always very careful around her. It wasn't until she asked Naruto that the puzzle finally fell into place. She hadn't confronted her friends even though she was enthusiastic because she had faith in them. Besides, what was a few days compared to 14 years?

And so Konoka who was using those hard earned skills listened in and silently disagreed with her father. Naruto had given her some basic magic books he had apparently been studying himself and she had awakened her power that night. And for that, both her and Se-chan were still in his debt even if they didn't know it. If he hadn't done it, she may not have awakened it in time to save her first friend.

There was a reason she talked about threesomes after all.

Although watching the usually stoic blonde choke was rather fun.

Setsuna focused for a bit, extending her senses for a few moments before her presence felt the blonde's, "He is outside, he said that he prefers to dine in less formal environments so I have already taken the liberty to ask for a portion of the meal to be brought to him."

"I see….this Naruto, he is a complicated person it seems. What is he like?" Eishun inquired.

Setsuna seemed to think for awhile, never moving from her position, "He…is honourable and just. So much so that even after only meeting him for only 2 days I can already tell that much. To people who don't know him, he displays a distant and slightly cold demeanour, but I'm led to believe it's because of something that had happened to him in the past that he does not give his trust easily."

Eishun observed the swordswoman's attitude while she spoke of the boy. He trusted her judgment as one of the best swordswomen he had under his authority even though she was still learning and she was as straightforward as they came. Nonetheless, there was something more, judging from the blush that was slowly spreading across her face but it did not let it concern him, but it did amuse him to know that someone had managed to dent the fierce swordswoman's armor.

Someone aside from Konoka anyway.

A soft smile took root on her face, "Earlier today, he allowed himself to get stabbed from behind so that he could help me reach Konoka-sama in time, after that, I deemed myself in debt to him, I asked whether I could do anything in return to repay that debt."

Oh? This seemed interesting, it was a known phrase, '_To see what someone's character is truly like, give him power_,' and the results of this would determine whether he fulfilled his Father-in-law's request or not.

"He didn't ask me for anything material or even important. All he wanted was my hand in friendship when he had complete authority over my person."

He could see why Setsuna was blushing now, she was probably attracted by the innate honor this Naruto had shown. True Samurai that still lived in honor in today's era was rather rare.

Negi stared in awe at the story that Setsuna spun, he hadn't known something like had happened and it solidified the blonde he had taken to calling his Nii-san's position in his mind.

"I see….. I look forward to meeting your friend, Setsuna." Eishun turned around and started to leave.

******Broken Faith******

Asuna quietly stepped out of the dining hall while no one noticed and softly slid the _shoji _close behind her. Travelling down the moonlit corridor, noises of celebration obscuring her footsteps.

She had wanted to talk to the blonde for a while, they hadn't spoken since her earlier breakdown this morning. Every time she had been around him after that, he had been distant towards everybody, most likely because Haruna and gang was there.

Plus, she wanted to thank him for saving Konoka and ask him about Setsuna's debt.

Konoka hadn't been the only one eavesdropping, once Asuna had noticed her best friend make this vaguely focused expression with one ear turned towards where her father appeared to have a conversation with Negi and Setsuna, she had joined in the fun.

Only to be rather….impressed at Naruto's actions.

**Play Akatsuki no Kuruma by FictionJunction Yuuka**

Walking out of a side entrance, she wandered around a lawn decorated with many sakura trees.

It wasn't hard to find him; she heard the haunting melody of a flute and immediately knew where to go.

_Kazesasou kokage ni utsubusete naiteru_

_Mi mo shiranu watashi wo watashi ga miteita_

She found him sitting in the junction of broad Sakura tree's branch, playing his flute again.

She waited for him to finish while she savoured the melody.

When he stopped, he looked down at her, she wasn't surprised, he always seemed to know where everyone was, before stretching his hand out to her. It seemed like he wanted her to join him on the branch. Slightly unsure, she looked up to stare deep in his eyes. The obscure pain in them made her curious and strengthened her resolve and she let him pull her up to sit beside him, legs hanging from the branch.

Like they always said, '_T'was curiosity that killed the cat.' _Asuna wished she remembered the phrase before joining him on the tree.

_Yuku hito no shirabe wo kanaderu GITAARA_

_Konu hito no nageki ni hoshi ha ochite_

They sat there silently as she fretted, Asuna didn't know how to start a conversation because of the weird mood the blonde seemed to be in. But she didn't have to. The blonde started it himself.

"I proposed to my wife underneath a Sakura tree in a field like this. Full of Sakura trees as the Sakura petals fell around us."

Asuna's heart froze as confusion reigned. Married? How? He was 15!

He made a sad smile, "She passed on before we could get married but in my heart I always think of her as my wife."

Asuna eyes widened, even through the confusion, she mourned on his behalf.

_Yukanaide, donna ni sakende mo_

_ORENJI no hanabira shizuka ni yureru dake_

"Do you want to see her picture?" There was something Asuna couldn't identify in his eyes. It wasn't sadness, or regret, or grief.

It was apprehension.

At what?

She understood why when she saw the picture. Her eyes widened. She was looking at herself. An older her. A very happy her. A younger Naruto with a very wide smile, had his arms wrapped around her waist and his chin on her shoulder. Confusion reigned once again until realization dawned.

This wasn't her; it was someone that looked like her.

Asuna furiously wiped the angry tears that escaped her eyes. All this time she had been lied to.

Flashbacks to when they first met, his actions, the softness and the hint of grief that was always followed whenever he held her in his arms, the way he acted differently to her compared to the rest of class was explained by this one picture.

"I know you think that I'm replacing her with you, but you're wrong," his voice uncharacteristically soft rang out.

"I showed you that picture, so I can finally leave the past where it belongs."

_Te no hira no kioku haruka_

_Tokoshie no sayonara tsuma hiku_

There were no words she could say. Her throat seemed be stuck. She had no idea whether she was feeling, hurt, anger, relief. Or whether she was feeling at all.

She was snapped out of it when a hand cupped her face, and thumb gently caressed the tear tracks falling down her left cheek.

"I'm not asking for anything. I just wanted a clean slate between us. I realised this morning that if anything were to start between us, I didn't want the relationship between us, be it friendship or anything more, to be tainted by my memories of her. You don't deserve that."

He was being completely honest. She could see it in his red rimmed eyes. Blue jewels alit with flames in the dark and framed by the falling Sakura blossoms.

It didn't stop the hurt or the tears.

_Aa kanashimi ni somaranai shirosa de_

_ORENJI no hanabira yureteta natsu no kage ni_

Asuna slapped him. "That was for leading me on."

Then she kissed him straight on. "That was for being honest with me."

She jumped off the branch and ran away, furiously wiping the tears that wouldn't stop.

Naruto watched her go. There probably wouldn't be any romance between them anymore. He had fucked up badly, but he owed it to her.

The risk that he lost everything by telling her was always there but she didn't deserve him hiding his past from her like an ever looming mountain of expectations she couldn't climb because she didn't even know it was there but could feel it every minute for the rest of her life.

Giving a strangled laugh, he brought the discarded flute back to his lips and started playing again.

_Omoide wo yakitsukushite susumu daichi ni_

_Natsukashiku me fuite yuku mono ga aru no_

_Akatsuki no kuruma wo miokutte _

_ORENJI no hanabira yureteru ima mo dokoka _

_Itsuka mita yasurakana yoake wo _

_Mou ichido te ni suru made _

_Kesanaide tomoshibi _

_Kuruma ha mawaru yo_

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Notes **

**The reverse Maple leaf crest is the crest of the Minamoto clan while Minamoto Yoshitsune's helmet is famous for two very large prongs. Royal purple and gold fittings are the colors of Minamoto Yoshitsune in Warriors Orochi 2.**

**Let me explain. In this fic, Chigusa is more than paranoid at the moment, hence she has contracted more vicious demons compared to canon, and hence why they actually DO hurt when they attacked at Cinema town.**

****Akatsuki no Kuruma**Red Dawn's Chariot****

_**Kazesasou kokage ni utsubusete naiteru - **_Shaded by the trees, calling out to the wind, I'm lying face-down crying

_**Mi mo shiranu watashi wo watashi ga miteita**__ – _When I look at myself, I see someone I don't recognize

_**Yuku hito no shirabe wo kanaderu GITAARA**_ – On this guitar I'm playing the melody of someone who's passed on

_**Konu hito no nageki ni hoshi ha ochite**_ - A star falls in the grief of someone who'll never be seen again

_**Yukanaide, donna ni sakende mo**_ - Please don't go, no matter how much you scream,

_**ORENJI no hanabira shizuka ni yureru dake**_ - all it will do is quietly stir these orange petals

_**Te no hira no kioku haruka**_ - I send the memories in my palm far away

_**Tokoshie no sayonara tsuma hiku**_ - An eternal farewell as I keep strumming

_**Aa kanashimi ni somaranai shirosa de - **_In the pure white unstained by sorrow,

_**ORENJI no hanabira yureteta natsu no kage ni - **_the orange petals stirred in a summer shadow

_**Omoide wo yakitsukushite susumu daichi ni**__ - _Branded into my memories, on the ever-turning earth,

_**Natsukashiku me fuite yuku mono ga aru no**__ - _there is something sprouting in remembrance

_**Akatsuki no kuruma wo miokutte**__- _Sending off the dawn's carriage

_**ORENJI no hanabira yureteru ima mo dokoka**__ - _Those orange petals are stirring somewhere even now

_**Itsuka mita yasurakana yoake wo**__ - _The peaceful daybreak I once saw

_**Mou ichido te ni suru made**__ - _Until it is placed in my hands once more

_**Kesanaide tomoshibi**__ - _please don't let the light go out

_**Kuruma ha mawaru yo**__ -_ The wheels are turning

******Broken Faith******

'_**Ayaka Yukihiro Ryuu Aijuu jutsu : Seichuka'**_ – Ayaka Yukihiro Style : Aikido Jujitsu combo : Flower in the Snow

'_**Asura Ryuu : Kaimon, Dai Ichi no Michi.'**_ – Asura style : Gate of opening, First Path

'_**Asura Ryuu : Kaimon, Sandaime no Michi.' - **_Asura style : Gate of opening, Third Path

_**Hyakkiyakou**__ – _Parade of one hundred demons

_**Chochinobake**_ – Haunted paper lantern youkai (Tsukumogami class)

_**Hitodama **_– will of the wisp ghosts

_**Bokuto**_ – wooden sword

_**Maneki Neko**_ – welcoming cat, usually made from wood or porcelain.

_**Datemono —**_ Helmet crest (generic term).

_**Kata Yoroi – **_Shoulder armour

_**O-Yoroi – **_Great Armour, traditional Armour worn by higher ranked Samurai. Google it for more information.

**Did you enjoy the cliffhanger? Feels like a kick to the ball sack doesnt it? Heck, i WROTE this thing, and it STILL felt like a kick to the nads when i proof read the thing.**

**Author's Note 2 : Oh btw? half of this chapter was prewrote, one of the inspiring ones that i did ahead of time. I'll give you one hint. i'm proud of this chapter. i'm even prouder then the chapters i already wrote for the Mahora Festival. it was what started me on writing this fic.**


	8. Wings of Friendship

**Broken Faith 8**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Negima, Warcraft, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Mahou Negima Sensei is owned by Akamatsu Ken. I have no idea who is the owner of Warcraft though.**

**Ah…. Do note, whenever I add a soundtrack to be played, always play the FULL VERSION of the official track unless I say otherwise. Like a remix or something, if so then I'll usually add link to where I got it. I usually try to time my scenes as best as possible to the songs, but due to the variety of the same songs available as well as differing reading speed, it's not reliable at all. But I try anyway.**

**Soundtrack List**

**Warcraft Soundtrack** – Call to arms

**Scandal **– Shoujo S

**Gurren Lagann OST** – Ten wo Tsuke

******Broken Faith******

**Wings of Friendship**

******Broken Faith******

_Shwaaa_

The sound of water falling from shower obscured what appeared to be sniffing as red hair obscured the person who was slumped under the shower. Her head perked up when she heard the shoji door open, sniffing one last time, she splashed some water from her face and wiped her eyes, hopefully erasing whatever remaining traces of her tears away.

"Kagurazaka-san? Is that you?"

"Sa-sakurazaki-san?" she glanced over her shoulders, careful to not let the swordswoman see her face, to see the swordswoman remove her towel and step into the bath.

"Hai, I didn't think anyone else would be here at this time. The rest have already taken their baths earlier, you were missing so I thought you went with Asakura-san and the others." Setsuna inquired of the red haired girl, she couldn't see the girl's face, only her back.

Asuna only gave a quiet sniff at the reminder and tried to change the subject, "I-I was busy. More importantly, I heard you offered your body to save Konoka. That's so romantic, your feelings for Konoka are so strong, Sakurazaki-san."

"Eh? Eeeh? Romantic? Feelings? It-its nothing so deep!"

"It somehow feels like more than a bodyguard, like..like a Kenshi rescuing her princess from the tower guarded by dragons!" Asuna said with a cheerful but rather forced grin, something Setsuna was too flustered to notice.

"Hawawa, It's nothing like that! Not you too Kagurazaka-san… Iincho too…. A-anyway, what about you? You tried so hard to help Negi-sensei its suspicious too!"

Asuna waved it off, "If I didn't help who would? Negi would get hurt if he did it by himself, I have work so hard to take care of that idiot, I can't just stand at the side and let a 10 year old get hurt, but honestly, every time he does something stupid it always makes me so worried."

Setsuna moped a corner with mushrooms, "Hauu….. I'm worried about Konoka-ojou sama too… but no one believes it's just that."

"Well…. You _do_ act a bit weird around her," Asuna said with a teasing grin, " But it's alright, we just have to get stronger so that we can protect both of them and bring everyone home safely without getting so worried about those two!" Asuna gave Setsuna a thumbs up and another grin.

"Get strong and go home together huh? That's what Naruto-san said when I was depressed about almost letting Konoka-ojou sama get hurt too." This time Setsuna noticed the frozen expression on Asuna's face.

"Kagurazaka-san? Is something wrong? You don't look well."

"It-it's nothing, just some personal problems and just Asuna is alright, we're friends right?"

"Fri-friends? Um… yeah friends." Setsuna smiled, "By the way, later on… can you bring Konoka-ojou sama to the baths as well? There's something I need to talk to her about…. And its better if you are here as well."

"You want to tell her about magic?"

Setsuna looked up in surprise that Asuna was so perceptive, "Ye-yes. Leader-dono doesn't seem as strict about keeping the secret anymore, and I think it would be better if Konoka-ojou sama can protect herself, even if just a little. I don't think it's fair that she has to face this danger without knowing why people are attacking her."

"That's alright, Let's go call her now."

******Broken Faith******

To many people, Eishun was outwardly a pacifist that didn't like to fight, a soft pushover. To those that knew him, Eishun was an experienced fighter but only chose force when no other option was left; he fought only when finally backed in a corner or when standing back at the sidelines was worse than actively fighting against. His style of fighting always reflected his ideals, reactive to a fault, but once the attack was launched it was near implacable.

In his opinion, one his most prized skills that enabled him to utilize his unique style of fighting was his ability to read people.

To most people, the blonde opposite him was as blank as a wall, but there were certain signs one could detect, a faint reddishness around the iris and a subtle clenching of his jaw.

Aside from that, he could get nothing else, neither approval nor otherwise reflected on his face, any signs of discomfort he might have had for finery around him from his earlier excuses were completely absent.

Going by the red eyes, something had likely happened for the blonde to completely shut down. It reminded him of Filius Zect, he had never managed to read the man easily either.

The redhead on the other hand was an open bouncing book. And at the moment the book was saying he was nervous at the weird stare down between his Nii-san and the Kansai Magic Association's Leader.

The staring competition finally ended when they gave each other a nod in acknowledgement and respect, Negi was confused, it seemed like a silent conversation had taken place, and he had no idea what it was about.

"It's good to finally meet you, Naruto-san, my daughter has spoken about you at length." Eishun said wryly. Spoken was an understatement, the tiny brunette had in fact taken him to task. After revealing that she knew about magic and how she found out, she had proceeded to pound his ego in with nothing but words but had then argued against revoking his order for secrecy for now.

She was apparently waiting for something.

Eishun inwardly shivered, she was growing to be like her mother as every day passed. That wasn't entirely a good thing. He happened to remember she liked whips, and not in the good way. Quietly he mourned for the days when Konoka was as tall as his knees and looked at him with those adorable eyes and shouted Otou-sama~ while bouncing around the house. 2 years seemed so fast sometimes.

Clearing his throat slightly, this wasn't the time for fatherly reminiscing, "First let me thank both of you personally for working so hard to protect Konoka, I admit to being selfish when I wanted her sheltered away from the Magical world."

Negi blushed slightly at the praise while Naruto shrugged as if protecting his daughter was a given.

"To be honest, attempts like the one you endured were the main reason I wanted it to be a secret. Unfortunately I did not expect the attempt to come from within our own society; I have been blind to the rising discord between our two magical societies to the point where it caused both of you much trouble. But rest assured, while we cannot do anything about it at the moment because many of our most capable people are on missions at the moment, but when they return tomorrow afternoon, we _will _deal with it."

A questioning look decorated Negi's face as he voiced his question, but why do you want it to be a secret from Konoka? And why is the Monkey Lady targeting Konoka in particular?"

Eishun bowed his head regretfully at the question before answering, "I have already spoken about the increasing disagreements between the East and the West, Monkey Lady as you call her, or Amagasaki Chigusa is one of the more known malcontents towards the Western mages. She has been known to fight with them on occasion, but I did not think her resentment would boil over to such a point. As to why Konoka in particular, she likely wants a trump card."

"Trump card?"

"Yes… a trump card. Due to the mixing of two high class bloodlines, Konoka was born with great potential for the mystic arts and an amazing ability to control vast amounts of power. Although I do not like it, you could liken her to a reservoir of magic that was predicted to easily surpass the Thousand Master himself in the future."

Eishun sighed again, "Maybe I was being too harsh, but because I didn't want my daughter embroiled in the conflict where she would inevitably be used as a tool, I hid her in our headquarters, and when the time for her education to begin, I sent her to a place I knew she would get an education and be safe at the same time, my Father-in-law's school."

Negi looked amazed that someone had the potential to surpass his father.

"Speaking of the Thousand Master I had to admit when I finally met you, Naruto-san, face to face, I was surprised. If I didn't know any better, you look exactly like a blonde, younger version of Nagi Springfield, the Thousand Master.

**(I'm not joking either, give Naruto a leaner face, and Kushina's hair; he really does look like Nagi, the idea came when one of my friends photoshopped Kushina and Naruto for fun, then I saw it and went, Hey, doesn't that look like Nagi from Negima? But then again, anime face and hair, everyone probably resembles everyone else)"**

'_Although… if I remember correctly, Arika's hair color was that exact shade of blonde… '_

The blonde finally let some expression show, confusion, "Excuse me, but who is Nagi Springfield or this Thousand Master?" he assumed the person had some relation to his homeroom teacher but wanted details.

Negi on the other hand started, "Yo-you knew my father?" Naruto spared him a look, so it was his father…

"Sure did, I was that idiot's inseparable friend after all," Eishun gave the two boys a thumbs up and a cheesy grin.

Negi had big round and glittering eyes, "Konoe-sama! Wha-what can you tell me about my father?"

Eishun smiled at the boy's enthusiasm, "Well, we used to have adventures all the time and covered each other's back….although I daresay he wasn't very good at it. He was always an idiot that charged in without thinking. But it was one of his good points, he didn't think about things, and was brutally honest. When he wanted something, he went out and got it. Even if he had to go into hell for it." _That's how he got your mother after all._

"O-oh…" Negi looked down, his hair covered his eyes, slightly depressed, the way Konoe-sama spoke about his father with such respect and camaraderie, it felt like he had a ways to go. His father's back was so far ahead of him, it felt impossible to catch up to that back that was getting farther and farther away.

A hand that ruffled his hair caused him to look back up, his Nii-san sat beside him, radiating a quiet confidence and a small smirk, "It doesn't matter how far, how great, or how long your father's title was, what matters is you make your own path, don't fill in his shoes, make your own shoes then walk past your father instead of following him."

He would know, he had surpassed his own father when he had taken Hiraishin to the next level after all.

Resolve filled the younger boy's eyes again and he clenched his fist, "Hai Nii-san. I'll make my own path and when I find him again, I can stand by his side like an equal. Not a follower."

Eishun watched the byplay with interest. Setsuna had been right, in the presence of people he didn't know or respect, the blonde was distant and cold, but when it came to people he was comfortable around, he radiated a quiet confidence and supported them from behind the scenes unless it became necessary for him to take part.

He was also unusually mature and perceptive, having deduced a Negi's contrasting goal and inferiority complex when it came to his father by hearing just a few sentences about Nagi.

Perhaps his Father-in-law's request had merit after all.

He decided to speak, "Naruto-san, if it is no trouble, I would like to speak to you personally about something my Father-in-law sai-"

He got no further, when both of the more experienced fighters in the room facial expressions twitched and simultaneously moved. Eishun moved like quicksilver and managed to avoid most of it but failed to completely avoid the gas and was quickly affected by the sudden explosion of smoke from behind him. Naruto, being further then Eishun from ground zero, grabbed Negi and jumped back from the smoke that felt dangerous.

Negi heard Naruto growl one word, "Fate."

**Play Warcraft Soundtrack – Call to Arms**

Confused, Negi could only watch, as a haired boy stepped out of the smoke, Konoe - sama was lying on the floor of to the side with a pained grimace. His eyes widened, this was the boy that attacked Naruto-nii san earlier today.

They moved into a ready position to prepare for an incoming attack that didn't come as the boy just observed the two of them.

"What are you up to Fate?"

"My apologies, but it is required of me by my contract with Chigusa-san as you are probably already aware of. She needs to have Konoka-san's power and it's my duty to help her at the moment."

Negi shouted, "We won't let you! Konoka-san is our friend and classmate, we'll protect her from people like you that want to abuse her power!"

"Heh, well said Negi, let's show him why he shouldn't mess with 3-A!" they both leapt forward, but before they reached him, Negi was shocked when Naruto-nii san crashed to the ground, screaming in pain.

Hurrying to his side, he glared at the white haired boy in anger, "What did you do to Nii-san!"

Fate watched with a detached interest as Naruto surprisingly dropped like a rock, he had been expecting to hold these two of as his demon summon made off with Konoka-san. "I didn't do anything at all. Most likely his body has had enough of the fights and rebelled on him."

Negi panicked and tried to cast any healing spell he knew at Naruto's writhing body but nothing seemed to work and the blonde kept screaming.

"It seems like the greatest threat to our operations has been incapacitated without any effort. The both of you are no longer any threat, I will have to take our leave, Konoka-san is waiting for me." Fate said, his voice monotone as he left through a puddle in the floor.

"Grraark! Negi! You have to go, his heading for Konoka and Asuna!" Naruto said through gritted teeth.

"Bu-but I can't leave you here Naruto-nii san!" Negi was panicking, memories of his village being petrified and burning flashed through his mind as another one close to him seemed set to go the same way and because of his involvement with magic, it was going to drag the rest of his innocent students down as well.

Naruto took a deep breath, "NEGI SPRINGFIELD! Remember your promise! You wanted to be the best teacher, to protect Konoka, Asuna, Setsuna and the rest of 3-A! Didn't you hear that albino prick? He didn't think of you as a THREAT, now get your ass out there and show him that you're not just the son of the Thousand Master exactly why he shouldn't dismiss you as a non-threat, so get your ass out there and started making your own name!"

That snapped Negi out of his panic, "I'll come back nii-san, don't die."

"Tch, as if I need a brat like you telling me that, now get your ass moving, his heading for Konoka and Asuna, their both at the east lawns."

"Hai nii-san!" and dashed off with one last look back at the petrifying Eishun and writhing Naruto.

Naruto let him get out of sight before letting loose another clenched growl and tore his shirt off. One glance told him all he needed.

The seal where the Totsuka no Tsurugi was kept was burning red.

'_Grrrr what the fuck is happening,_' he propped himself on a wall close by with a grunt, nails dragged along his skin as he tried to lessen the pain.

"You would make a good commander." A nonsensical comment was voiced.

Naruto looked up in surprise; in the commotion he had completely forgotten about the Kansai Magic Association Leader, looking at where Eishun was laying on the floor, the man seemed to be half way petrified. He gave a strangled laugh as it felt like another fresh firebrand was pressed to the seal, "No I don't, I learn from my mistakes and just do what is necessary." He dryly replied.

"My father-in-law wrote to me about you, you know. Something about sealed in the tree?"

"It's a long story; I'll tell you over a cup of sake when your nuts aren't being turned to stone."

Eishun gave a small laugh, "Looks like his judgment hasn't failed him in his dotage; he chose a good person to be a bodyguard for Konoka." Eishun struggled to sit up enough to look at the blonde in the eye, "Save Konoka and the rest for me will you?" and was completely petrified, a cheesy grin and a thumbs up.

"Sure…_if _I can find out what the fuck is wrong with me," with a swipe of some blood across the seal, the great claymore popped out, the blade was burning red and the hilt was smoking.

The pain only slightly lessened, enough to let Naruto move with some difficulty, pulling out his Pactio card he put it to his forehead_, 'Old man! What the heck is happening? Out of nowhere it felt like I was being burned and my sword is burning red. The only reason I could think of was something is going on with the tree and the seal.'_

'_Naruto? Naruto is that you? Oh thank god, what's going on? Your earlier update said everything was fine but then suddenly I received a call for help from Yue Ayase about people turning to stone, she assumed you and Negi got turned to stone as well when she couldn't find you. Then Negi called and comfirmed you and Eishun were being petrified as well.'_

'_No, I avoided the spell, he probably thought I got hit in his panic, but we're currently under attack by someone named Fate Averruncus who works for Amagasaki Chigusa. He managed to penetrate the temple's defences somehow and petrified Konoe-san. Can you see the World tree from where you are? Is something going on with it?"_

'_No no, nothing's wrong with it, when I received the distress call from Yue, I assumed you were out of action and with most of my people busy and Takamichi abroad, I decided to send Evangeline and Chachamaru down as support. She originally can't leave Mahora because of a seal but I was trying a loophole to allow her to leave and help Negi. We hit a hitch because you leaving the World Tree seems to have warped the seal matrix, it gets more technical but I doubt you want a lecture right now. Anyway I presume that's the reason for the pain. Should I stop?'_

'_No, keep it going, as much as I hate to admit it, with the consecutive battles, I'm currently down to 15%, I'll bear with the pain if it means you can send some heavy artillery, no clue who this Evangeline is but I know Chachamaru is strong.' _

'_Very well. Be safe Naruto.'_

Naruto slipped the card back into pocket and grimaced as a fresh wave of pain hit him. Rooting for a seal around in his body he finally found what he was looking for.

Unsealing the contents he offered a muttered prayer to Kurenai-sensei, "Wherever you are right now, I hope you're happy with Asuma-sensei and surrounded by lots of carpets for both of you to lick because I owe you big time for teaching me this this."

******Broken Faith******

Negi ran down the corridor, his heart racing, when he heard footsteps approaching from around the corner, on instinct he automatically summoned his staff with a call of "Mea Virga!" and thrust it where his opponents throat should have been, only to find the sharp blade of a nodachi also at his throat.

"Setsuna-san?"

Negi-sensei! Your ok! What happened? I found Saotome-san, Miyazaki-san and Asakura-san petrified in their rooms and was about to go look for Konoka-ojou sama and Asuna-san!"

Negi, furiously wiped some angry tears that escaped his eyes, "Dammit, they got the girls too. Naruto-nii san, Konoe-sama are petrified as well."

Setsuna's eyes went wide, someone as skilled as Naruto was petrified as well? This wasn't good.

Resolve burned bright again as Naruto's words echoed in his mind, "I failed them enough already, I can't just depend on Nii-san to keep fighting all my battles, let's go, we need to find Kagurazaki-san and Konoka-san."

'_I'm sorry everyone, I'll bring Konoka back before I cure all of you!'_

"How do we find them? This place is huge!" Setsuna said with a worried voice.

In response Chamo spoke up from Negi's shoulder, the entire time ermine had been with Negi but stayed quiet in front of the East's leader, and then when Fate had attacked, he had stayed quiet so that he didn't draw any attention, "Aniki! The Pactio cards! Contact Asuna-nee san."

"That's it!," Holding up his Pactio with Asuna to the forehead he sent a message, _'Asuna! Asuna you alright?'_

******Broken Faith******

Asuna who was warily walking with Konoka after they found the servants of the temple petrified started at the sudden ethereal voice calling her name, '_Is that Negi?'_ "Negi? Is that you?" she said out loud regardless of Konoka.

When the voice rang out again she remembered her Pactio card, quickly pulling it out, she put it to her forehead as well, giving a hurried glance she decided it couldn't be helped, "Negi? Negi is that you? I'm with Konoka now, what's happening? We're finding statues everywhere!"

'_It's the guys from earlier. We're being attacked again! Saotome-san, Asakura-san, Miyazaki-san, Naruto-nii san and Konoe-sama are all petrified as well.'_

Asuna's heart froze for a quick beat. The blonde that had always seemed like a juggernaut even when he was injured had been turned to stone like those priestesses she and Konoka found.

She only allowed a few leaked tears before furiously swiping them away, there would be time for mourning later, right now Negi and Konoka needed her, "Can they be cured Negi?"

The reply she received was hesitant, _'I...I can't do it myself, but Konoemon-sama can do it. I already called him, his sending Evangeline and Chachamaru to help.'_

"Alright, we need to meet up, it will be safer, they will be targeting Konoka," she glanced out of the corner of her eyes again, the brunette definitely heard those words.

'_OK, we'll meet up at the baths,' _and the connection was cut.

Squaring her shoulders and clenching her jaw Asuna spun around and gripped Konoka's shoulder's with a fierce look, "I know you're confused about everything that happened, I promise that me and Setsuna were going to explain it to you when I called you out, but something happened. There are some bad guys that are after you. We need to get to the baths now and meet up with Setsuna-san and Negi. When everything is done, and we're safe we'll tell you everything but for now I need you to follow me, is that ok?"

Seeing the brunette nod, she quickly called forth her _Harisen_, missing the calculative glint that passed Konoka's eyes, and pulled Konoka along to the general direction of the baths.

Once they arrived, Asuna slid the _Shoji _open slightly and peeked inside, there was no one there, slightly disappointed that Negi hadn't arrived yet, she led Konoka in. once inside, Asuna let out a breath of relief, no one had attacked them yet, and for that she was grateful. Standing in front of Konoka to shield her readied her _Harisen_ and they faced the shoji door, hoping that no one would be able to sneak up on them that way.

All was silent, only Asuna's half ragged breathing and Konoka's steady ones. Asuna's eyes swiped left and right, seeking any signs of danger. For some reason her back was tingling, the way when you know someone is staring at you, but she held back the urge to scratch it.

Suddenly from the corner of her eye, she caught a shadow moving.

Behind.

Swiftly pivoting she slashed in a wide arc above Konoka's head. Fate's eyes widened in a split second and jerked his head back to avoid the blow.

However it still scratched his forehead and blood dripped down his brow as he widened his eyes in disbelief. That blow had completely bypassed whatever shields he had.

Asuna watched as the boy's eyes narrowed at her, "You are dangerous, even more so than your blonde classmate."

This time Asuna's eyes narrowed, "You were the one that hurt him?"

"No, I do not know what happened to him but do not worry; I will have you sleep, then you will worry no more." Quickly chanting before the girl could stop him he blew a cloud of grey smoke at the red haired girl. He only heard a "Kyaa~" from inside the cloud as he ordered the summon to quickly abduct the Konoe heiress, thus he didn't expect another blow coming from behind as a naked Asuna swung at him again with one hand covering her chest.

She was pissed.

Quickly moving in front of the demon, he signalled it to leave with the struggling and shouting Konoka as he confronted the girl, "I'm surprised….it seems an attack of that level was completely ineffective against you. It looks like we need something more," Pulling out an ofuda he incanted, "Vari Vandana," and threw it at the pool behind him.

Asuna gaped as the water exploded into a multi armed thing, dodging a few she striked at the arms but was quickly subdued as the arms started to tickle her, "Kyahahaha! St-ahaha, what the hell? Ahahah, stop it! Why are you mag- ahahaha, mages all such perverts? "

Fate stared at the girl being tickled.

A twitch appeared on his brow as he pulled out a note book. "Huh…. So it was that kind of spell…though I didn't mean to strip her…." He turned back to the girl, "Whatever, I just wanted to ask, just now, your blow completely bypassed my shields… and the petrifaction magic had no effect on you. It wasn't your artefact, how did you do it?"

"Huh? How the he- ahahaha, hell should I know? Stop tickling me! I can't breathe!"

"Then I have no use for you. Die by tickling please." Fate said before he snapped his fingers, causing the arms to tickle even more.

"Bwahaha! Stop it!"

******Broken Faith******

Negi and Setsuna burst into the baths, panting hard, the baths had been further then they thought. Looking around they caught sight of a twitching Asuna on the floor.

"Asuna-san! Kagurazaka-san!" both of them shouted in worry.

Dashing to her side Setsuna immediately propped the breathless girl up while Negi averted his eyes, blushing slightly.

"Asuna! Asuna-san! You alright?" Setsuna shouted at the prone red head.

"Guu..uu. Se-setsuna… I-I already.." Asuna weakly tried to reply,

"Hawawa, di-did they d-do to her?" Negi stammered as Setsuna paled in response, "E-e-echi things?"

"Eeeeh? N-no way…. Asuna's virginity…"

Asuna would have face faulted if she wasn't already lying down, "Didn't happen like that! Get both your heads out of the gutter dammit!"

"Aahahah…." The two of them laughed sheepishly until Asuna managed to catch her breath again, "I'm so-sorry Setsuna… Konoka go-got kidnapped again, I was too weak to stop that guy…be careful he is still around."

"It's ok, you're my friend too right? At least you're ok, and we can still get Konoka-ojou sama ba-" Setsuna's eyes widened and immediately spun around, having sensed his presence a split second before she finished her sentence, just in time to deflect a punch heading for the back of Negi's head but leaving herself wide open for the second wave of a double layer attack, a simple but powerful palm thrust to the chest.

As Setsuna screamed in pain and bounced away from the force of the attack, Negi reacted, chanting "Activate the contract for Negi Springfield for 1 second," while his hands already in motion, a punch which was ducked while his hand swiped the staff where he predicted the white haired boy to go, successfully bashing Fate in mid air, but not doing any damage other than to push him back."

Fate shook the hand which he used to block the staff swipe, it's was slightly numb.

He was impressed.

"That was a very good attack, you have good instincts even if it is untrained, I can see what Naruto-san sees in you now, but instinct only takes you so far. You are still no threat."

Negi twirled his staff in a defensive position, his face set in a resolved expression,

"I'm angry. I'm so angry I don't know what to do."

But I know I can't forgive you for hurting Naruto-nii san, for hurting Konoe-sama, for petrifying everyone in the mansion, attacking Setsuna, doing Echi things to Asuna, but the most unforgiveable of all, I can't forgive you for kidnapping Konoka and attacking my innocent students. Naruto-nii san asked me to give you an ass kicking."

"Get ready for one." Chamo gave the white haired boy the finger.

Fate almost smiled, the response was almost typical of the blonde, "An ass kicking? Unfortunately you are nowhere near powerful enough to do that. You may have numbed my hand with that attack, but that's as far as you can go if you don't want to get hurt, farewell." The white haired boy said as he slid into a puddle of water.

"Tch…he got away." Negi clenched his fist.

Chamo jumped off Negi's shoulder and inspected the puddle, there was no sign the puddle was of magical origin, mere bath water, it confirmed what he suspected, and for that he respected Negi's nii san even more.

He had no idea what the hell blonde did but for a normal, non magical person to garner such respect from a high class mage was unheard of. "Aniki, 'Water Gate Transportation magic' is very high level, be careful, that boy isn't any ordinary mage."

Negi kept silent as he stared at the water intensely while Setsuna staggered up to them, "Are you both ok?" she asked.

Asuna perked up, "Yeah, I'm ok, but we need to hurry and save Konoka."

Her homeroom teacher seemed to snap out of his intense stare and snagged a flapping towel before draping it over Asuna while averting his eyes from his naked student, "Um.. Asuna please stay here, we'll get Konoka back for sure."

Setsuna joined them, "If we hurry, we should be able to trace them by their residual magi-Guh," she clutched her stomach where the palm thrust had landed, causing Negi to give a worried frown, "You're injured Setsuna-san, if it's just a light wound I can heal it. Here, show me."

"Guh..alright," Lifting up her shirt, she showed a spreading bruise on her abdomen, Negi placed his hands near the bruise before starting a low level healing spell.

"Th-thanks, but if we don't hurry Konoka-ojou sama will…."

"Its unavoidable, if we don't heal this now, there may problems later, I expect they will have a lot of demons trying to stop us from saving Konoka, we can't have you fighting at less than 100%" Chamo said. "Right now, we're sorely lacking fire power…if only…" It was almost like a lightbulb lit on the ermine's head, "I got it! Setsuna-nee san should 'chuu' aniki!" he finished with a perverted giggle.

"W-wha?" Asuna face faulted before slamming the ermine on the floor, "Ho-how can you think of perverted things in such a situation?" she demanded from the ermine.

"N-no, its not what you think Asuna-nee san…" the ermine squeaked from under her palm, "I mean Pactio! Pactio! Setsuna-nee san can use _Ki _right? Means she's already powerful, if we add magic from the Pactio, Setsuna-nee san will be powerful enough to stop them!" the ermine tried to persuade them to form a Pactio, "Although I don't blame you if you feel jealous of losing Aniki to Setsuna."

The last part was said under his breath.

Asuna blushed and spluttered at the innuendo before slamming the rodent again, "I am NOT jealous!"

"De-demo, to suddenly kiss right now!" Asuna stammered,

"Th-that's right Chamo! There's no mood!" Negi said, agreeing with Asuna, causing her to stare at him as if he was crazy and mouth 'mood?'

Setsuna just blushed and muttered under her breath, "I-I already have Konoka-ojou sama…"

"Tch, I'm not asking you to marry him, whatever, you need firepower right now, just go ahead and 'chuuu' her, Aniki!" the ermine responded, causing Setsuna to blush deeply at the _M-word _and Asuna to slam him again.

"Anyway, we're wasting time talking about Pactios, Negi-sensei already finished healing, we need to get there now, if the situation really is that bad, then….." she glanced at Negi before she set her jaw, "Then we'll make a Pactio."

"Alright, alright, whatever you say, but I still say doing it now is better." The ermine muttered disappointedly.

Asuna stepped on him, "You're just a hentai rodent!" turning back at the others she gestured, "C'mon, stop sitting around, let's go!"

"Eeeh? You're going as well Asuna-san?" Negi stared at her, "Of course I'm going; who else is going to save you when you get beat up."

"Bu-but…." Negi averted his eyes again and muttered, "You-you're naked."

"Eh?" Asuna glanced down.

"Kyaaaaa!"

******Broken Faith******

3 figures sat in a train as it travelled towards the Shinto Shrine atop the mountain. Kaede Nagase, Kouga Chuunin of 3-A, appeared outwardly tranquil but was deeply worried for her homeroom teacher as she stared out at the moving scenery, _'Negi-bouzu, I hope you can hold out a bit longer, these people are pros, so be safe…'_

Then she glanced at Mana, unlike most people, she was rather close to the quiet girl. And she could see the dark skinned girl was rather unsettled, especially since Yue had called and quoted one of the casualties as Naruto.

Kaede had no idea why the girl was attracted to tall blonde and handsome people.

Muttering under her breath so that the energetic Ku Fei didn't hear her, "You sure you alright?"

Mana glanced back at her companion before tersely nodding, "Yes. But I thought better of Naruto-san, to be so easily trapped…." She trailed off as Kaede nodded understandingly.

What Kaede didn't know was that the dark skinned girl wasn't worried about Naruto, he was just petrified and that could be reversed, but knowing that Naruto was a half demon and that he was still trapped said a lot about the quality of enemies she was expecting to face which caused memories of her mentor's sacrifice to surface.

******Broken Faith******

Three figures dashed through a forest, heading towards a gathering of energy signatures which according to Setsuna was Chigusa, the Monkey Lady, some minions, and Fate himself.

Quickly jumping clear through the trees with their enhanced muscles they landed in the river in front of the eastern Mage and her flunkies, "Let Konoka-san/ojou sama go!" all of them demanded of the mage.

"Oya? So you made it here, Newcomer, why didn't you take care of them when you were kidnapping the girl?" Fate glanced at her from the corner of his eye, "My apologies, I didn't think they were an active threat, I already took care of the strongest mages in the temple and saw no harm in letting some middle school students and their teacher go unmolested."

"Hmph, I'll be taking this failure out of your pay." Turning back to the three fighters assembled in front of her she spoke, pride filling her voice, "I welcome you, in just a few minutes, when I reach the altar with the Konoe heiress and the final part of my plan will be set. However, I'm deeply sorry you can't join the festivities," a malicious smile spread across her face, "Of course, I have some entertainment lined up for you. A taste of what the Konoe heiress is capable of, if you will,"

Spreading her arms, she started chanting, the seal tag stuck on Konoka's chest started glowing as her body bucked and twisted in Chigusa's Goki's arms with either pain or pleasure, the 3 of them couldn't tell since her mouth was gagged, she could only make some muffled sounds.

Negi, Asuna and Setsuna all tensed and their hearts dropped into their stomaches with dread as magic circles spread all around them in great numbers.

A great multitude of monstrous looking things started to fade from the circles as the Monkey Lady continued her chant, Asuna nudged Setsuna, "Oy oy, shouldn't we hit her before she finishes her spell or whatever? This doesn't look good."

Setsuna shook her head, the anger at her own helplessness was obvious, "We can't, if she was chanting an attack spell, I'd be the first to start cutting her up, but this is a summoning spell. If we stop her, whatever she summons will _at best _go berserk on everybody here, endangering Konoka-ojou sama. If we let her keep control, at least we know she won't harm Konoka-ojou sama," Setsuna gulped, "Yet."

Asuna sighed in frustration, "Perfect, so we sit around and let the big boss summon her mooks. That's so cliché, but there's no choice is there?" she asked herself.

Negi in front of both of them hushed them, "Shh, get ready, she's nearly done."

All of them stood tense as a frightening army of monsters appeared and stood all around them.

Chigusa looked at the army of demons she had contracted before hand in satisfaction, she admitted to herself she had gone overboard a little but it made no difference since Konoka was the one providing the fuel. Though summoning that many probably made it more painful than it should have. Gesturing for her troupe to follow her she jumped of the boulder and started heading north but not before leaving a parting shot over her shoulders, "Don't worry, little boy and girls, you can see the final part of my plan from here just fine. Enjoy."

Negi sighed as he watched the Monkey Lady leave, "This probably isn't a good time….but we should start kissing…right about now."

Chamo grinned. "I'll need some time to set up a magic circle and make our plans, Aniki, you need create a barrier to buy us some time." Meanwhile Setsuna was trying to calm Asuna down.

The red haired girl was losing the grip on her _Harisen_ as the presence of so many monstrous beings made her quiver, the situation looked very bad. She heard Setsuna try to calm her down.

And as much as she hated to admit it, she heard Naruto's words echo in her head again;

'_I won't let it get that far Asuna, I promised you remember? I... failed once before…. And I won't fail again. I won't say that no one will get hurt but no matter what, we won't give up right? If there's something in our way, we beat it down. And if it keeps coming, we'll keep beating it down. If we can't, we'll get stronger and we'll get keep getting stronger together so we can tear it down until it quits trying to make US quit. We'll get strong enough so that nobody else has to fight, so that everyone can go home together in the end no matter who or what we have to fight. So don't cry alright? We'll get through this.'_

'_Dammit Naruto, you were supposed to be here with us.'_

Her grip tightened again. _'Enough, stop moping around like some stupid lovesick middle school girl, I can't just depend on that rock head all the time.'_

She was distracted from her ruminations when with a cry of "Flans Paries Ventis Vertitis" a huge tornado like barrier of wind snapped to life and blew the nearest demons into the air.

"We have three minutes, Chamo get working, I wanted to get Konoka back as soon as possible!" Negi shouted so that they could hear him over the violent winds blowing, "On it Aniki!"

Negi turned to face the two girls, "We need a plan, there's too many monsters here to deal with before going to save Konoka, by the time we're done, whatever that Lady is planning, she'll have succeeded unopposed."

Setsuna grimaced, "As much as I hate to say it, we need to separate into two groups, Negi-sensei can reach there the fastest with his staff, Asuna, you go with him, I'll stay here and stop the monsters from following." She gave a wry smile, "Dealing with summoned monsters like this is what the Shinmei Ryuu was developed for after all so I'll be ok." she said drily. She didn't mention it would probably easier since she could release her limiters and make use of her half demon powers. It probably wouldn't make much of a difference with this many monsters though.

Asuna gaped before making a face, Setsuna was being brave enough to stay and deal with an army alone while she was acting like a pansy a few seconds ago, she had to do something "Are you an idiot Setsuna? There's at least 300 monsters here! If you're going to stay, I'll stay here with you, my _Harisen_ can dispel these monsters like that stupid teddy bear easily so it'll help, Negi is powerful enough to go on alone, right Negi?"

"Um…. Uh yeah, but before that… um…uh…." Negi blushed shyly causing Asuna to frown, "What is it Negi? Spit it out."

She was answered by the very happy, very exuberant and very much drooling at the prospect of a kiss, Chamo, "The magic circle is done," he happily declared, "It's time to 'chuuuuuu' and a puchu" the ermine said while making kissy faces in the air. All three of them blushed before Asuna regained her famous temper and squished the rodent underfoot, "You didn't have to make the 'chuu' sound so long dammit, you're just a hentai rodent trying to embarrass all of us here!"

Behind her the two people about to kiss stood in front of each other, blushing deeply.

"An-ano… Sorry for the trouble, Negi-sensei."

"It-it's alright, the two of you are my students after all, If I can do something to protect all of you, I'll do it willingly. I just have to hold out until you two can finish all the monsters and back me up."

"Eh, that isn't right Aniki," the ermine from under a blushing Asuna's feet spoke, "You don't have to fight, right now our priority is saving Konoka-nee san, your staff can go pretty fast, so we just have to snatch her from that monkey before meeting back up with Asuna and Setsuna-nee san, then all of us retreat back to the temple where hopefully Konoemon-sama's support will arrive."

All of them stared at the ermine.

"Wh-what? Why are you all staring at me like that?"

Asuna was the first to speak, "Th-that act-actually sounded smart. I thought you only had echi thoughts in that furry head of yours." She sounded pretty amazed, Setsuna and Negi both vigorously nodded their heads in agreement.

The ermine cried anime tears and tried to mope, but he could only impotently huff since he was still stuck under Asuna's foot, "Whatever, three minutes is almost up, Hurry and 'chuuu' Aniki, Setsuna-nee san!"

The two of them blushed and shyly glanced at each other like elementary kids that had crushes on each other, "Go-gomen Negi-sensei."

"Uh...um yeah…."

Asuna couldn't avert her eyes even though her blush was reaching atomic levels.

Stepping closer Setsuna put on hand on Negi's shoulder and the other cupped his cheek, bending down, Negi only heard her mutter "I-itadakimasu," before their lips smashed together and Negi forgot everything else. His brain crashed from the high levels of embarrassment.

When his brain finally rebooted, he heard Setsuna speak softly, "Sensei, I'll take care of Asuna-san…so please, rescue Konoka-ojou sama for me…."

At the mention of Konoka his resolve burned brightly, "H-Hai! Don't get hurt too badly, I can't bear it if any of you were hurt because of me," he replied just as softly but a degree of firmness.

Setsuna blushed.

Asuna also blushed before yelling at the two of them, "Oi oi, the wind barrier is failing, will you two please stop flirting and get ready?"

The two of them leapt back from each other like they had been scalded; the amount of red certainly made them look like they had been scalded.

Squaring his shoulders, he looked over his back, "The moment the barrier falls, I'll fire a powerful spell as a distraction so that I save Asuna, you two will have a few seconds at most before the monsters realize what happened so take as many of them down before they get ready for a fight."

The demons outside the barrier had been grunting and muttering to themselves when one of them noticed the wind slowing. "Finally," one of them muttered, when the thing was barely gone, they were treated to a sight of the open glowing palm of Negi Springfield.

"Gwahh! Get out of the way! The kid is chanting something!"

"_Jovis Tempestas Fulgurientes!"_ Negi roared, and released a bright beam of thunder that lanced straight out, cutting a clear path through the crowd of monsters; before they even knew what was happening, something else sped past them, following the path that the thunder spell had destroyed.

"Oi! The little kid is getting away!"

"Who cares! There's still two girls for us to play with!"

**Play Shoujo S by SCANDAL**

Asuna and Setsuna stood back to back, glaring at all the monsters.

"You ready Setsuna-san?"

"Yeah, you too Setsuna-san, and be careful."

"Heh of course, we're all going back to Mahora together remember?" Asuna turned back at the hoard of monsters, "Now….let's go demon slaying!"

( Cue demonic Ass kicking Girl Power style )

******Broken Faith******

"Aniki, you feel that? That Monkey Lady seems to have started something big!"

"En, we need to hurry, Accelerate!"

******Broken Faith******

"Hyaah!" Ducking under a punch, Asuna cleaved a whole row giant one horned Oni with all her strength, causing all of them to go poof, turning back to admire her handiwork, Asuna muttered with a grim smile, "Heh, that's about 15, maybe I'm really strong after all. Looks like, I don't need to depend on you Naruto."

Deciding that was enough daydreaming she jumped back into the fray with a yell, both her _Harisen_ and Setsuna's nodachi flashed around the clearing, cleaving and slicing any demons that got near.

At one point, Asuna extended herself, running forwards and attacking a group of Onis had allowed another to flank her, just as they were about to attack, Setsuna appeared by her side, with a quiet "Shinmei Ryuu Ougi : Hyakuretsu Oukazan!" her nodachi flashed again several times, chopping the whole group of demons into pieces, the wind from her move, blowing up Asuna's skirt.

Asuna sheepishly laughed as her Harisen dispelled another group of demons, "Thanks for that Setsuna-san, you're pretty good at this, maybe when we get back, you can teach me kendo?"

"Eh? B-But I'm still learning too!" she replied while avoiding a great club and slashing her attacker.

"That's alright, we can get stronger together."

"Heh, I don't mind if you can keep up."

"Is that a challenge?"

They both smiled as a strong friendship was forged on the battlefield.

The demons on other hand weren't so carefree, "Guwaa… Shinmei Ryuu style is our enemy…. But that girl's fan is cheating boss, one hit and it's an instant kill, and she doesn't miss either,

"Hah! That just makes it a better challenge; don't tell me you're afraid of a small girl? By the way…. Do you think it's become fashionable not to wear underwear nowadays? "

"Maybe she likes the breeze? If anything…it's the 21st era…it's a good era, heheheh."

Asuna burned like a light bulb as she clutched her skirt to keep her decency, she hadn't had the time to get a new pair of panties after her earlier ones were turned to stone, "Kyaaaaaa!"

One of the demons commented, "Oooh, she's moving slower now, go get her~"

"Why? Why do all the magical things I meet such perverts!" Asuna cried anime tears as she was chased by a bunch of giggling onis.

"Asuna-san! Gambare!"

"YOU try fighting harder without YOUR panties!"

"Um..uhhh…. ahahah..." Setsuna laughed sheepishly.

"Don't just laugh! Help me!"

******Broken Faith******

Negi landed roughly on the ground barely avoiding a crack to his head by summoning his staff at the last moment. Chamo on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

Shortly after the place where the ceremony was being held came into view, he had been attacked by multiple Inugami spirits, and had been too slow to deflect the animal spirits. Which resulted in his current condition.

Body tense, Negi spun around looking for his attacker, although he had a pretty good idea about who it was anyway, he didn't have to keep waiting when the boy in question melded out from the shadows.

"Kotarou-kun. I was wondering where you were since you were helping Chigusa-san."

At the question Kotarou looked sheepish, "I was actually stuck in that barrier until barely an hour ago."

Negi couldn't help it, he laughed, causing Kotarou to color again, caught between anger and embarassment, "Don't laugh damn it, I'm a fighter, I don't know how to use all those complicated charms and it was hard breaking that barrier from the outside!" the wolf half demon composed himself again, "Anyway, there's no way I'm letting you pass here, I want to fight you Negi, full strength and nothing held back. Nothing less will get you by me."

Negi gritted his teeth in despair, he was being stopped by Kotarou and the Huge explosion of light from where he could see the ceremony was being held only made it feel as if a fist had punched his gut. He had failed.

******Broken Faith******

Asuna and Setsuna were having a hard time, having disposed of all the minor mooks, it left them fighting more experienced opponents, a extra large Oni that seemed like the boss, a small, swift and masked Oni and a birdman, that they were already exhausted didn't help matters.

Setsuna grimaced, they were in a very bad situation, Asuna was captured by the birdman, the weirdo pervert Tsukuyomi had just shown up and a huge pillar of light had exploded from the north, signifying that whatever Chigusa was doing, it was working.

The swordswoman 's fist clenched around her nodachi's grip, she didn't see any way out and her body was screaming for her to give up and just mope in despair but she had one last trump card to play, gathering her power she started the rites to release her limiter.

Meanwhile the birdman raised a solid fist and prepared to punch Asuna, the red haired girl just gritted her teeth but didn't shut her eyes, she wasn't going to be a coward if she could help it, her feet kicked uselessly against the birdman's chest.

As the fist rocketed towards her defiant face she only had one thought.

'_Naruto!'_

As the fist nearly reached her, a gun shot rang out as the birdman's head exploded, and just in time. Asuna could feel the air displaced from the punch as it stopped short of her face.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Gurren Lagann OST – Ten wo Tsuke**

A figure enshrouded in the shadows moved like quicksilver, leaving a trail of wind and dust, no directions were needed. He could see the huge pillar of light just fine.

But using this method of travelling was risky, very risky, and he would most likely be exhausted when he arrived, but it was a gamble he would have to take.

'_Stay safe until I get there Negi, Asuna, Setsuna!'_

******Broken Faith******

The homeroom teacher of 3-A was getting desperate, the ceremony seemed to have succeeded, but he needed to do something, even if it was too late, he needed to get down there. Launching another magically charged fist at the grinning Kotarou's face again, he was slowly letting his temper get the better of him.

"Aniki! You have to calm down, you're using more power then you should because you're angry and you're already sharing with the two nee-sans, if you run out, they'll be in danger too." Chamo yelled, trying to get negi's attention.

Negi started, shocked out of his anger before shamefully muttering, "Sorry Chamo, I'll try." Facing the wolf half demon, Negi tried to use words to move Kotarou, "Get out of my way Kotarou! You know what the Monkey Lady's doing is wrong so why are you stopping me from helping my student!"

"Hmph, I don't care what she wants, I signed up to fight some damned western mages, instead I find you, the strongest person my age that I've ever met. I'm having too much fun, I can't stop here!"

Negi desperately tried again, "I swear I'll fight you whenever you want, just let me help Konoka! Please!"

"No can do Negi, I know you won't truly fight me if I let you pass. So I'm taking this chance."

His anger burned again and Negi's hair shadowed his eyes, "Very well, if that's what I need to do to save my students, I'll use everything I have and tear you to pieces," Negi stated in deadly calm voice.

"Hah! That's what I wanted Negi! Let's go!" Kotarou and Negi charged each other at the same time, fists blazing with magical energy only for a human sized four pointed shuriken to crash into the ground between them, stopping the attack and distracting both of them long enough for a shadow to appear crouched in front of Kotarou and hit the wolf half demon with a powerful palm thrust away from Negi.

Another shadow dropped down from a tree beside the clearing, when the smoke finally cleared Negi could see that it was Nagase-san from his class, and she appeared to be carrying Ayase-san as well. "Ayase-san! I'm glad you're safe, I thought the worst when we couldn't find you at the temple," Negi breathed a sigh of relief that at least one of his students wasn't injured or petrified.

All thoughts of relief was shoved to the back of his mind when he heard what Nagase-san had to say though, "Yare yare, getting so hot headed and losing yourself to your anger and pride, you are lacking in concentration training Negi-bouzu."

Negi shamefully looked at his feet, fully agreeing with the Kouga ninja.

******Broken Faith******

The gunshot stunned everybody and the clearing was suddenly quiet save for the hurt birdman, the Onis and Tsukuyomi looked around warily for the source of the gunshot. When another two shots were fired, the large Oni was prepared and blocked it with his large club while his smaller companion did the same with her bladed tonfas. only for two blurs to appear from the trees.

"Looks like you're having some trouble."

Setsuna stopped the rites and breathed a sigh of relief.

Back up had arrived.

"Eeeeh?" Asuna cried in surprise as she saw who it was while Setsuna just gave a grim grin at the figure up in the trees, "Nice to see you too, Mana, you got here in time for some fun." Mana gave a smirk in return, "Oh, it'll be fun, but you still owe me for saving you and Kagurazaka-san."

Beside her Ku Fei was excitedly swivelling around, "Ugyah! Those are real monsters! So cool!"

******Broken Faith******

Negi watched stunned as Kaede let Ayase down from her hands. The height difference was very obvious, "H-how did you get here Nagase-san?" Yue turned to her teacher with a small bow, "I'm sorry for being presumptuous but I called her here on my cell phone after I called the Dean, we were being attacked in the room by someone strange, the only people I could think of to help in that situation was Kaede-san."

"Mana and Ku Fei are already reinforcing Asuna-san and Setsuna-san, so you don't have to worry about them too much," Kaede added in her usual but slightly amused calm tone.

Negi breathed another sigh of relief.

Backup had arrived.

"Geeh? That's no fair! Who are these onee-sans?" Kotarou shouted but was ignored by the trio.

"Negi-bouzu, this is no time to dawdle, you are in a hurry right? Hurry and go on, I'll occupy our little friend here." Kaede added again, "Eeh..b-but."

"Just go Negi-sensei."

"Hai…. Thank you so much, this means a lot to me." Negi turned and ran as fast as he could towards the still emanating pillar of light.

Kotarou tried to attack Negi and stop him but was stopped by a kick from the taller onee-san, "What are you doing Nee-san! I don't want to fight women!"

"So you're name is Kotarou huh bouya? You have good taste to choose Negi-bouzu as you're rival," Kaede's usually calm face suddenly turned cold and deadly, "But you should recognize the proper time for a fight, trying to stop my sensei from rescuing my classmate just because your pride wanted a fight… in return, let me, an experienced Kouga chuunin show you how useless that pride is…" A mass of clones appeared as they all stalked towards the wolf half demon,

"Kaede Nagase, tadaima kenzan."

******Broken Faith******

"What do you mean it's no good you old geezer!" a kneeling Evangeline demanded from the Dean, "I mean that Nagi used so much power that the sealing matrix is locked shut, there are nearly no loopholes for a modification, the fact that the seal's matrix was also changed again recently renders this schematic pointless. We have to work our way through manually!"

"Wait? Changed? What changed it? Why wasn't I notified about something like that?"

"Eeh? You weren't? I thought I sent you a note."

"Gaaah I hate dealing with old men, whatever, just hurry and do the required modifications, I'm not very good at seals but I'll help!"

Chachamaru watched with a stoic face, "Ah…. It seems that Master wants to see Negi very much…"

"Gwah! Who wants to see that bouya! Keep quiet and don't say so embarrassing things!" she started screwing the spring on Chachamaru's head extra hard with an embarrassed blush so that Chachamaru would be too busy to talk about Negi.

Chachamaru silently noted that the emotions invoked when her Master turned the key so hard was similar to the ones she got around the blonde as a red hue spread across her synthetic skin. Was his presence charging her from a distance? How strange. The thought of the blonde being her personal battery was very…interesting and should be explored in the future.

******Broken Faith******

Mana rapidly fired and reloaded her M40A1 softgun replica as the demons started to charge towards her. However, even with her high rate of fire, very soon, she was surrounded by monsters on the boulder she was using as a sniping platform.

"Huhuh, you may be a great sniper, but that gun is useless in close range," A monster grunted with a grin, but his grin faltered when he saw the dark skinned girl merely smirk before flicking two Desert Eagles from inside the guitar case that she was apparently using to store her weapons with a simple kick.

Grasping the guns midair Mana almost seemed to dance in a fluid gun-kata, shooting all the demons around her at almost point blank, dispelling many of their comrades with unnatural ease, and flexibility. At one point, it even seemed like she had 360 degrees of vision since her arms somehow twisted around her body and even managed to shoot his comrades in her blind spot.

The monster who had spoken panicked, a birdman like the first monster to be gunned down, he charged with an overhead slash, only for the slim girl to block his sword with nothing but the butt of her gun, causing the blade to break, the blade shards flipped through the air and sliced another demon while the, very scary, girl continued to dispose of his comrades with an ease that bespoke of practice.

"Wha-what are you?"

Mana placed the gun at his head, "A mercenary." And fired.

Asuna gaped at her classmate, she couldn't seem to get the words out to properly describe what she had just seen, "Buwaa? Ma-ma-mana? Strong!"

"Setsuna laughed at Asuna's bewildered expression, "She is, isn't she? I go out and slay demons with her occasionally."

Mana calmly ignored her stuttering classmate and turned to a bouncing Ku Fei, "Kuu, you can go handle the weaker ones," Ku Fei huffed indignantly, "Ah! you're looking down me again, Mana!"

As the smaller girl was speaking, a group of monsters sneaked up on her, hoping to at least get a scratch on the new comer, if not for revenge for their fallen comrades, then at least so they didn't look completely useless by getting their asses handed to them by middle school girls, too bad it failed as Ku Fei sensed them and blocked a club swing with her bare hands before stomping her back foot and transferring the force into a straight blow that was powerful enough to throw the entire group backwards. Ku Fei frowned in disappointment, " So weak, your bodies are big but weak, c'mon! Isn't there anyone stronger?"

Mana stoically replied, "Don't get cocky Kuu, you'll get hurt."

Asuna gaped again, "What's with the amount of strange and powerful girls in our class? I didn't even know Ku Fei could fight like that!"

"Ahahah…. Don't sweat the small details?" Setsuna replied sheepishly, "Anyway, it seems like we're saved, both of them are pretty powerful, and since Kaede who is usually around Mana isn't here, it's safe to say she went ahead to help Negi-sensei."

Just then all of their attention was diverted by a dazzling explosion of light. The pillar of light that had been getting bigger and bigger as time passed exploded, and a humongous glowing titan with four arms and two faces slowly stood up with aloud creaking sound to tower above the horizon.

Everyone stared in shock, they had failed, the ceremony had succeeded and Chigusa was going to win.

Setsuna fell to her knees in despair.

'_Konoka ojou-sama!'_

She was suddenly hauled up by a red haired furious girl, "What are you doing giving up so soon? We can still save Konoka and Negi is still waiting for us to back him up, so don't start moping on me, Let's go!"

Gritting her teeth at her momentary weakness, Setsuna replied, :"Hai!" Both of them started to move before being stopped by a figure slashing two blades.

"Ah~…. Setsuna-senpai… so good to meet you again."

******Broken Faith******

**A few minutes before**

"Grrr… I hope Nagase-san will be alright…." Negi growled under his breath, he made a mental note to punch Kotarou the next time he saw him. They may be friends, but that didn't warrant that stupid episode. "It's alright Aniki, that ninja-nee san looked strong, just focus on getting Konoka-nee san back now."

"Wakata, _Mea Virga!" _Jumping to straddle his staff mid stride, the teacher rocketed forwards at high speeds with a call of "Accelerate!"

******Broken Faith******

At the ceremony altar

"Are we ready yet?" Fate spoke calmly. The mage in front of him glanced back irritatedly, "Not yet, it just needs a few more minutes, why?"

"Because he is here."

They both looked to see a trail of water exploding into the air in the wake of something that was flying towards them at high speeds, "Grrr, we need more time, Newcomer! Go stall that irritating boy!"

"Very well," Pulling out an ofuda and chanting lowly, he threw it into the air with a flash of light. When the light receded a tall demonic summons stood before him, "Rubicante, go stop that boy."

The summons nodded silently before spreading its bat like wings and rocketing towards the oncoming western mage, only to be blown apart when Negi charged his body with magical energy and punched right through the summons.

Fate perked up, the boy was improving. And at such a fast rate too. He would have to nip this in the bud, he thought to himself as he observed the red haired boy who was still speeding towards them above the water. Wait the boy seemed to be chanting something, Fate tensed and prepared himself, only to be distracted by a huge explosion of what appeared to be mist.

Negi chanted under his breath, "Invoke the contract for Negi Springfield for 5 seconds, Max Accelerate!"

Fate was unimpressed, a simple distraction method, that didn't work since he could feel the magical blaze heading towards them. He had to give it to the Springfield family, even exhausted they still radiated energy like no other. He moved his hand to intercept the speeding silhouette only to wide his eyes and jerk his body back at the last second to avoid a staff that would have pierced any normal person.

There was no one on the staff!

Unseen to him, Negi had charged the staff with energy for the 'Max Accelerate' before using the inertia he gained from the speed to jump of the staff, horizontally landing on a stone lanter while Fate was misled by the staff and pushed off, a magically charged fist heading towards to back of Fate's head.

"Clang!" Negi narrowed his eyes, the fist was blocked by a barrier, but he wasn't done, "Mea Virga!" Grabbing the still magically charged staff he flipped in mid air from the momentum of the staff and smashed Fate in the face with the knob end with a hammer strike while upside down.

Fate stumbled back, a comically surprised expression on his face. That was the kind of move he would expect from Naruto, not Negi.

Negi, not allowing his momentary victory to stop him, landed and dashed towards the white haired boy, intent on trying to punch the boy's lights out again, by then Fate had already recovered his balance and grabbed the fist, stopping it cold.

Rubbing his chin where the force of the hammer strike had impacted, he spoke, "Impressive, you are learning at a very fast rate, but it is still not enough, you are still not used to fighting melee combat, truly you are nothing more than a child after all, even if you are the Thousand Master's son." What he expected was for Negi to crumple in despair or rail at him for being compared to the Thousand Master, what he got was a quiet "Fufufu, got you." before he felt a palm land on his chest, "Release! Sattica Magica : Binding Arrows of Air!" his arms snapped to his side and his eyes widened in surprise, _'A delayed spell!' _the bound boy realized too late as he felt magical strands immobilize him completely,

"Heh, got you, magic barriers don't work very well at stopping point blank spells"

Fate didn't even flinch, "No matter, at most this spell will only stop me for 5 seconds, then your downfall begins."

"Tch, 5 seconds is plenty, Mea Virga!" he dashed to the altar only to stop in surprise, Konoka wasn't on the altar anymore. She had been moved while he was busy.

He was distracted from his ruminations by a huge explosion of light and a heavy magical presence saturating the area.

******Broken Faith******

"Fufufufu, summoning success." Negi heard a voice floating down from above, looking up in shock, he saw the floating Monkey Lady, hovering before her unconscious was Konoka-san, "The legends say he was 180 feet…. But he seems even bigger; did he grow while being sealed?"

Negi ignored the commentary, "Tch, we need to do something, "HE started chanting under his breath causing Chamo to look at him in surprise, "Aniki? That spell is powerful, but it won't have an effect against something that big and you are already exhausted, using that now will just drain you dry!"

"I don't care, I need to do something, _Jovis Temperantes Fulguriens_!" Negi roared and released his second Jupiter's Thunderstorm of the day.

The yellow beam, circled by violently spiralling winds that lanced out again was awe inspiring, but clashed impotently against the titan's chest.

Chigusa laughed, "Fufufu, something like that won't work against a Ryumen-Sukuna no Kami! A God!"

Negi, seeing his strongest spell fail could only fall on fours in despair.

He had failed.

******Broken Faith******

"Dammit Setsuna, why does your kouhai have to be so irritating! Doesn't she know she isn't supposed to be flirting with the person she's trying to cut into pieces!"

Setsuna who was fighting Tsukuyomi beside Asuna felt a red blush stain her face in embarrassment but didn't reply other than to continue to try subdue her kouhai so that both of them could go help Negi.

"Gah, this is so annoying, we need to go help Negi! Get out of the way horny bitch," Asuna grinned when the Goth girl frowned and she succeeded in landing a direct blow with her Harisen while her opponent was distracted, throwing the Goth girl away from them, "Let's go!"

"Asuna!" the twin tailed girl heard before she was pushed to the ground by Setsuna, barely avoiding a thrown wakizashi from the side, "Grrr, she just won't quit," Asuna said as she prepared to fight again, only for a few loud shots to ring out, causing Tsukuyomi to get divert her attention from the duo in order to block the bullets, "Setsuna, Asuna! Get out of here, we'll distract her, Negi needs your help." They heard Mana shout as she continued her barrage at the swordswoman that was wearing a frilly white dress.

"You sure?" Asuna asked worriedly, "No worries, I'll just charge you double for making me work on a holiday than triple that for being bait."

Setsuna cried anime tears; her bank account was going to be dry by the end of the day.

"Understood, C'mon Setsuna, what are you dawdling around for?" Asuna shouted as she dragged a Setsuna that was still moping over her bank account.

As they ran towards the towering titan, a voice rang out in both their heads, a voice that sounded suspiciously like a certain perverted ermine, _'Asuna-nee san! Setsuna-nee san! Are you ok? We need help now, Aniki is in some serious trouble!'_

"We're heading there now, hold out till we get there!"

'_You won't make it there in time like that! I'm going to use the third function of the Pactio cards to summon both of you from far,'_

"Eeh? Summon? You can do that?"

'_Yes, but this isn't the time for explanations, just get ready for a big fight when you get here.'_

"Understood!" the duo replied to the bodiless voice.

******Broken Faith*****

Fate flexed his arms for the last time and the bonds finally broke, his composure never changing he strode towards where Negi was on all fours, a broken look on his face that disappeared to show fear as he noticed that his binding spell had been broken and Fate was walking towards him. The expressions slowly changed to defiance as the ermine seemed to whisper something in his ear. It seemed like he would have to break his spirit completely.

"I have to commend on you on what was a very good effort, too bad it was wasted and for all your efforts, you are completely physically and magically exhausted. Now, I won't kill you, but I still have to punish you, so prepared to get hurt." Fate said as he raised one hand, preparing to cast a spell.

Chamo was busy whispering instructions in Negi's ear as the albino boy walked towards them, when he felt the girls finally get within range, he whispered loudly, '_Do it now Aniki!'_

Fate only quirked an eyebrow as Negi flicked two cards into the air with a defiant expression, he watched as the two cards glowed and two magical arrays that he recognized as summoning circles appeared and two of the Guardian's finally appeared.

All three of the Guardians presented glared at him in defiance, Asuna moved to stand over Negi to protect the exhausted boy, while Setsuna glanced up to the sky behind her to see if Konoka-ojou sama was alright.

His face never changing except for a slight tic, Fate spoke before chanting, "Three mice is no different from one, what do you expect to be able to do now? _Vishu Talri Shutal Vangait Bashirike Galiote Meta Octo Podon Kai Cocoon Onmetin-"_

"Tha-that, that's his spell key! His a western mage?" Chamo shouted in confusion, "It doesn't matter, we need to stop him! Setsuna!" Asuna looked at the swordswoman, "I'm sorry I won't make it in time, we need to get out of here now, grab hold!"

They all grabbed onto the swordswoman just as the spell chant was completed, with a call of "Petrification Breath!" a large cloud of gunmetal grey smoke exploded where Negi was standing. "Hmm.. I missed…." He turned around to look at where his senses told him the trio had landed, on the pier that led up to the altar. He started to walk towards them, enshrouded by the smoke from his attack.

Negi grimaces as he felt his hand start to petrify, this was the one spell he hated above all. Asuna and Setsuna both saw the grimace before they noticed his hand, 'Negi-sensei!"

"I-I'm alright, it barely touched me."

Setsuna gritted her teeth. There was only one thing she had left, glancing at her two friends she could easily tell both of them were near empty, neither of them were what anybody would call experienced fighters, in fact Asuna was just a normal middle school girl, and Negi for all his magical prowess was still 10 years old. This was completely up to her now; she only wished she wouldn't regret this in the future.

Moving to stand in front of her two friends while pleading with them, "Both of you are already exhausted, and Asuna-san can't keep fighting because Negi-sensei is already drained, please save yourselves, I will save Konoka-ojou sama."

"What the heck are you talking about, Setsuna! We cant just leave you here even if we are tired. We all go home together remember?" Asuna argued back.

Setsuna sighed, trust Asuna to be stubborn, "Very well… I-I have something to confess, it's a secret that I've kept from everyone, even the both of you and Ojou-sama. But according to rules of my clan, once I have exposed it to normal people, I have to leave. Pl-please don't hate me….."

Asuna and Negi watched wide eyed as Setsuna glowed brightly and two white wings with incredible wingspan unfolded from her back.

It was beautiful.

With a flurry of white feathers the glowed ended but Setsuna kept her back to them, not wanting to see the hatred she expected from them in their eyes before brokenly speaking, "Th-this is my secret…. I'm a monster, a half demon like Naruto." She drew a choked breath, "Don-don't misunderstand, I didn't keep it a secret out of malice or anything….. I-I kept this a secret because I was af-afraid. That once Konoka-ojou sama saw this ugly form she would hate me as well."

She gave a grim smile that no one could see in the darkening light, "Even Miyazaki-san has more courage than me, I'm pathet- Kya!"

Setsuna let out a soft moan when someone touched her sensitive feathers.

Swivelling her head, she noticed that Asuna-san was patting her wings and inspecting them, "An-ano….Asuna…san?"

Asuna finished her inspection before slapping Setsuna's back, hard," Kyaaah!, I-itai.." with a wide grin, "So what? You have two beautiful wings. I've seen Naruto grow claws and chains, do you really think I'd be scared of something like this? Compared to his, yours are pretty cool!"

"Eh?"

"Besides, how can you call yourself Konoka's childhood friend if you don't understand at all?"

"E-eh? Eeh? Bu-but.."

"No buts! You have been with her since childhood, you've watched her from the shadows for two years, do you REALLY think she would hate you for something like that. Heck, she's so ditzy, she would probably think Naruto's claws are cute and cuddly."

Konoka, high above them floating on the Summoned God's shoulder sneezed on Chigusa's face, causing the Monkey Lady to blink at the absurdity of what just happened.

Back to the trio on the ground, "Anyway, we still support you whether you have wings or not, now go save Konoka! We'll support you from behind!"

"Setsuna teared up, touched by the friendship Asuna showed, even if they had only been talking for about 3 days. "Ha-hai! I'll do my best!" turning around with a strong resolve, Setsuna spread her white wings and jumped off, her wings flapping to climb the air as she sped towards the floating Monkey Lady and Konoka."

Fate watched surprised, although he didn't show it, and immediately tried to intercept, about to fire a spell at the flying girl, his aim was knocked away with a cry of "Sattica Magica : One arrow of Light!" from an exhausted Negi.

"Heh, any ideas Asuna? Chamo?"

"Nope,",

"All dry."

"Then lets wing it." Right before they charged a voice suddenly blared around Negi, 'Oi, bouya,!"

Chamo recognized the voice immediately, "Gwah, it's that scary Loli Grandma Vampire."

The voice was quiet for a while, when it finally returned Chamo trembled, '_When I finally get there, I'm making grilled ermine for lunch,'_ Chamo scampered into Negi's sweater, _'Anyway, bouya, hold out for 3 minutes. Just three minutes. Me and Dean finally found a loophole but putting it in place will take awhile. Hold out till then and show me what you can truly do, after that, I'll finish the rest.'_

"Alright, we'll try our best, Asuna!"

"Ready!" Both of them charged at Fate, they had to hold him off for 3 minutes, no problem… Right?

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note** :

_**Flans Paries Ventis Vertitis**_ – Blusterous Tornado Barrier

_**Jovis tempestas fulgurientes**_ – Jupiter's thunderstorm

_**Shinmei Ryuu Ougi : Hyakuretsu**_ Oukazan – Shinmei Style Secret Move : One hundred Great Cherry Blossom Cuts

_**Tadaima Kenzan **_– Dramatic way of saying 'I have arrived' and usually signals the start of a battle.

_**Wakata**_ – Understood/Roger that.

**My god, I thought I could finish the Kyoto arc, but it was two chapters longer than I expected. In return for having to slog this mess of a chapter, I think you might like the next one. **

**Its very…flashy.**

**Anyway, I don't like this chapter very much other, a lot of the chapter Is filler which I was forced to enter since I didn't want Naruto stealing the spotlight, lots of people don't like it that way for some reason. So I tried to write the characters as if they knew Naruto, how they would act if they were influenced by him but without his help. Can't say I did very well since most of it kinda turned out like canon anyway.**

**There was also supposed to be Tsukuyomi fight scene which was cut out because let's face it, if he shows up, what the hell is everyone else supposed to do? So I made it short.**

To one particular reviewer, Logically, which saw fit to critique me without giving his real profile so I could reply. _Exactly _**what** do you define as Broken? As Dark?

I truly am curious, not insulted. You're not the first to say that he isn't 'Broken' enough. Exactly what do I need to do to make him 'Broken? Write him like Light from Death Note?

Cliché? Of course its cliché, I didn't invent common convention and I'm not a professional author or inventor. Should I make him start riding Moles and carry around a saucepan instead of a big ass sword and fart fireballs before it's not cliché?

Explore the world after being reawakened? You just woke up from a long sleep, the world has changed, your fucking mother is pregnant with octuplets, you can't take two steps without your bladder losing it and pigs can fly. And you _still_ want to walk out there and explore like an idiot without any knowledge of what common convention is nowadays? Feel free, but when you get hit by a bird that shits bricks because of scientific progression don't come crawling to me. _Of course_ he is going to stay, **I fully admit it may not feel natural, it may be forced plot progression**, _but it gives me a place to start otherwise there WOULDN'T be a fic to write at all._ Why don't YOU give me a better try at kicking off a fic.

Btw I still don't see whats wrong with a nose bleed in an all girl's school. It was only at the start when he's still fuzzy, after that he pretty much firmed up didn't he? Besides he wasn't really thinking in terms of normal students, he was thinking more along the lines of 300 plus hot kunoichi around him. I'd bleed, wouldn't you? Unless….you bat for the other team, if so, no comment.

Of course, it's all semantics, so I'm more inclined to ignore you and listen to the other 95 reviews that say GAR, let's kick ass!

**Kur0Kishi**


	9. Burst Mode Unlocked

**Broken Faith 9**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Negima, Warcraft, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Mahou Negima Sensei is owned by Akamatsu Ken**

**Soundtrack List **

**Gundam Seed OST** – Vestige By T.M Revolution

**Gurren Lagann OST – **Happily Ever After

**Scandal – **Scandal Baby

**AN : I know 100 reviews aint a big milestone to most people, but hey, pretty new writer here, and it's a milestone for me, so cheers to bakapervert. This chapter is dedicated to you for making my first milestone.**

******Broken Faith******

**Burst Mode Unlocked**

******Broken Faith******

Fate smirked, in their tired state, they were no match for him, 3 minutes, much less 1 minute. Fading from sight with great speed, he immediately dashed in front of Asuna and kicked her up into the sky before kicking off, Asuna dazed from the attack couldn't do anything to stop the incoming kick that folded her in mid air and sent her rocketing into the planks below.

Asuna out of the way, Fate turned to Negi who was chanting a spell, appearing behind like he did to Asuna, Fate launched the boy with a well placed palm thrust. Negi flew through the air and knocked the staggering Asuna back into the water. Fate stood there for a few more minutes before the both of them exploded out of the water, this time they glanced each other as they charged.

Nodding, Asuna fell back and let Negi take the lead, "Invoke Contract for Negi Springfield for 5 seconds!"

The red haired boy dropped his staff and started throwing wild punches as Fate just avoided them all easily and kicked the teacher backwards, just as Negi flew back, he didn't see a blur dash from underneath the boy and give Fate an uppercut.

The white haired boy staggered back a bit, and Asuna didn't let up her combo, pivoting, she sent a kick with as much strength as she could gather.

Fate shook of the hit like it was nothing "I see… Springfield distracts me and blocks Kagurazaka-san from my line of sight by attacking even when he knows he cannot break through my barrier to allow Kagurazaka-san to hit me from a weird angle, and since magic barriers don't affect her it would be the best choice. but enough is enough, I tire of your games, '_Βασιλισκ__ὲ__ γαλεώτε μετά κ__ᾦ__κτ__ὼ__ ποδ__ῶ__ν καί κακο__ῖ__ν __ὀ__μμάτοιν τό φ__ῶ__σ __ἐ__μ__ῇ__ χειρί καθίασ τ__ῷ__ κακ__ῷ__ δέργματι τοξευσάτω! Κακόν __ὄ__μμα πετρ__ῶ__σεως'"_

And launched a grey beam of light in a wide arc, turning everything it touched to stone.

Asuna saw what was coming but Negi who was still dazed from the hit he had received would have no chance of blocking it, gritting her teeth in desperation she jumped in front of Negi, everybody kept saying magic didn't affect her, it was time to test that statement, she hoped her gamble paid off and protected him from the blast.

"Asuna!" Negi screamed as his friend seemed set to be turned into stone, "Nghh, what are you shouting for so loud? I'm right here." She replied in kind before giving him a lopsided grin as her clothes all turned to stone and crumbled into dust.

"Yo-you're alright!"

Fate raised an eyebrow that his spell was completely ineffective, "Tch, you are indeed the biggest threat to our organization, I will have to take you out first,"

Fate pushed off from his position, his speed bolstered by magic and his fist blazing with energy, intent on at taking out Asuna from battle, or at the very least render her immobile.

The Guardian duo could only watch as the fist gradually came nearer, Asuna covered Negi again, hoping to at least protect him from the worst of the damage and they both shut their eyes.

Time slowed.

******Broken Faith******

**Minutes earlier**

"Tch, there are too many demons, Kuu you alright?" Mana shouted over her shoulders as she took out demons with every shot.

"I-I'm ok de-aru!" she was obviously lying as she received another cut from Tsukuyomi.

Slowly the both of them were boxed in, on one side was Tsukuyomi who was eerily grinning and on the other was a horde of demons.

"Tch….should have charged more than triple."

"Man-mana… I'm scared de-aru." Mana looked over her back at Ku Fei, she had to admit while Ku Fei was a very skilled fighter and had done extremely well, she had never fought outside of official competitions before much less in a situation like this.

**Play Gundam Seed OST – Vestige By T.M Revolution**

Then she sensed something moving towards them at high velocities. A smirk spread across her face, so he wasn't down and out after all.

"Heh, don't be scared. Help is coming."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, just watch the show."

All the summoned onis and Tsukuyomi froze as they finally sensed what Mana had been sensing, something was coming, and it wasn't happy.

A black flash charged out of the tree, the speed at which it was going completely bulldozed tree, boulder or demon alike. Before long it bulldozed though the circle of onis that surrounded Mana and Ku Fei but never stopped, Tsukuyomi watched wide eyed as the demon that had defeated them the first time around finally showed up.

A deep red stain darkened her pale cheeks and her breathing started to get ragged as a lecherous grin appeared. Wasting no time she ran at the demon that apparently wasn't going to slow down.

She thrust her sword and was completely surprised that the demon didn't bother to avoid it, the katana pierced all the way through and it just barrelled into her like nothing happened when she heard a dark guttural voice, "Jamada. Doke." The stabbed demon gripped her arms and threw them both wide into the air, leaving her completely defenceless before he puffed into smoke. Tsukuyomi was absolutely confused, the demon was dispelled? Then suddenly pain blossomed as the smoke blew away to reveal another identical demon which continued to barrel into her, fluidly ignoring the smoke and stabbed two kunai into her knees and destroyed her kneecaps before puffing away as well, revealing another identical one behind already with another two combat knives poised, this time stabbed into her shoulder joints and puffed away like his earlier comrades.

Eyes bleary through tears and pain, Tsukuyomi finally realized what happened, there was more than one demon, and they all ran in sync, hiding all of them from her view other than the one at the front.

Barely capable of standing she watched helplessly as a fourth demon suddenly ducked below her in a crouch, revealing fifth that was already spinning.

Both of them kicked at the same time, one to the chin, and another in her abdomen sending her rocketing into the sky. Through her pain, she absently noted that if she wasn't protected by the magical barriers the two kicks would have separated her head from her body. Those were her last thoughts before everything went black.

Mana watched as the black clad person continued to bulldoze his way right through the demons after dispatching off Tsukuyomi like she had been standing still.

Impressive. Very impressive.

Looking around she noted that the gathered monsters all looked like they were in deep shock as half their numbers were killed off. Not from some big ass hero, but because some bulldozer was just passing by.

Mana smirked before throwing a few hand grenades into the stunned monsters, as fire blossomed behind her she spoke to Ku Fei who was blushing for some reason, "Lets finish off the rest of this failures, I'll treat you to nikuman with the money from this job."

"Really? Yatta de-aru!"

******Broken Faith******

Time slowed.

But nothing happened. When Asuna opened her eyes again to see why she didn't feel any pain, the first thing her eyes saw was a pair of long legs wearing jeans and a pair of black sneakers.

Negi on the other hand watched disbelievingly as a blazing fist was stopped barely an inch from his face. Asuna who was shielding Negi and facing away from Fate, stared up with up with wide eyes into the white mask of Naruto Namikaze.

"Oh? I was under the assumption that you wouldn't be able to make it to our little gathering."

Swivelling his eyes behind the mask as he walked to cover the two on the ground, Naruto took in everything at once, the heavily injured Asuna, Negi, a flying Setsuna that was battling Chigusa's two summons_, 'wait flying? And are those wings?'_, the really big glowing thingy that still had its body half stuck in a rock and the impassive Fate.

Outwardly, Naruto looked calm and collected, but inside it was pretty bad, to get here on time, he had released the Kaimon, the first of the Eight Gates, Hirashin had been out of the question since no one had brought a kunai, and travelling here the long way by Hiraishin would sap whatever chakra he had left anyway.

Hence the Kaimon, and his body was already tearing apart since the energy burst was all used up.

"Heh, I'm hurt Fate, I thought you'd save a seat for me."

Fate didn't reply, the boy seemed to be staring at him with a questioning look, "What are you even doing here? You are already half dead."

He heard two gasps from behind him.

"Oh? You noticed?"

"Yes. Admittedly it took me a while to get used to it, but in our earlier fight, I noticed whenever you used your Asura Style, the split second before your technique hit, your body emitted a strange pulse of energy that increased the power of every hit nearly tenfold. You hid it well, but during our fight I already noticed your body was tearing itself apart in exchange for the extra power. Is that why you named the style ; Asura Ryuu? The self destructive wrathful god?"

Naruto grimly chuckled, "I should have known you were holding back on me."

"Partly, I was also interested in something else."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"Nothing that concerns you at the moment,"

Naruto grinned behind the mask, "Very well, shall we start? I need to get these kids back home in time for their curfew. Oh and kick some giant glowing butt at the same time."

Fate didn't move, instead Naruto saw the first real expression on Fate ever since they met, it was a confused expression, "Start? Start what? Like I said you are already half dead. Judging by the pattern of the energy aura you emitted on the way here, I assume you used a predecessor technique to your Asura Ryuu, one that constantly blasts out power, but damages your body at an even faster rate. Right now, you probably can't even walk straight much less start a fight with me."

Naruto sweat dropped, the boy was sharp, "True, but I made a promise, and I'm not backing down yet."

"Very well… I am reluctant but if it is your death you seek, I will help you achieve it."

They wasted no time and charged, Naruto spun around, using the rifle on his back as a short staff and swung the rifle from a low angle which was blocked by Fate, using the inertia from the block, he reversed the swing, bashing the muzzle end on Fate's head, Fate instinctively leaned back to avoid the incoming rifle but just when the rifle was swinging past his face, Naruto pulled the trigger, firing a shot right in Fate's face.

Fate's eyes widened as he saw the incoming flash from the barrel.

When the smoke cleared they could see a thin line running along Fate's cheek with a grim expression, he had apparently avoided most of the attack.

Fate dabbed the blood slightly, "I see…. You knew you couldn't pierce my barrier so you tried firing at a point blank range. And with such a powerful weapon, the best my barriers could do to deflect the shot was to change the trajectory. It looks like I cannot afford to play around."

He dashed forward at a speed Naruto knew he couldn't follow, spinning the rifle around like a shield he tried to buy some time but a knee bashed into the back of his head, causing him to drop his rifle. Spinning around to face his attacker, he punched blindly, but something gripped his arm and slammed him down on the floor.

"Oh, and let me return the favour," before he knew it, the grip on his arm tightened and a foot stepped on his chest as it was yanked out of its socket.

"Gwaahh!"

Asuna started crying at the obvious pain Naruto was in while Negi flinched away at the sound of Naruto's arm being wrenched out like that.

Fate dropped the limp arm, and walked away from Naruto, "I don't understand you, earlier in the temple you were in obvious pain, I noticed the needles in your shoulder, presumably a form of acupuncture that is helping you suppress the pain from then. You are obviously experienced on the battlefield, so why fight so hard against the inevitable when you know it is futile?"

Naruto charged, his limp arm hanging by his side as he drew a knife from his holster, one handedly exchanging blows with two stone swords, as they fought Naruto spoke, "Keh, where's the fun in life if everything is inevitable eh? Even death didn't take me thousands of years ago, what makes you think I'll stop now?"

Naruto took a knee to the abdomen but gave a slice to Fate's arm in return, "There's no big deal if you achieve something you know you can achieve; the best things worth working for are always those you know you cannot get it, but got it anyway." He glanced at Asuna from the corner of the slit in his mask, something she noticed even through her tears.

Staggering up from a kick to the head, Naruto attacked again, this time one fist against two; he managed to grip one hand, deflect the other with his elbow before slapping all three limbs into Fate's face. Fate stumbled back, before moving forwards again, "Thousands of years ago? I see… thank you for confirming something for me. My earlier questions are answered," he slammed a fist into Naruto's mask, blood leaked out from a crack; "You aren't supposed to be alive are you? You aren't even human. So why are you working so hard to save people you don't know even with one foot already in the grave?"

Taking advantage of the limp hand, Fate began to attack his immobilized right side, causing Naruto to scream again.

Negi clenched his teeth and fired a spell at the white haired boy while Asuna attacked head on, side stepping the charging girl, he backhanded her into Negi before sending whips of water to attack them but a punch from the side from Naruto caused him to stagger and lose concentration from the spell.

He frowned slightly, "I see you still have some spirit in you," grasping the fist that was still planted on his cheek, he twisted, breaking Naruto's wrist.

"Gwahhh!"

Seeing Naruto on all fours, cradling his arms to his chest, Fate spoke, "Give up, you no longer have use of your arms. If you want to save your friend's join me and my master. You aren't human, you owe these people no allegiance. If you help us, I guarantee I will at least save Konoka-san and defeat the Unsealed God for you."

From the sidelines Asuna noticed the blue eyes peeking out from behind his mask. For a moment their eyes connected, and she realized something. She had no fear that he would agree to Fate.

He would always keep his promises.

Turning away from the mismatched eyes of Asuna, he felt something warm fill him up. He knew what he had to do now. Looking up at the blank face that was trying to persuade him to give up as he struggled to get up, Naruto chuckled, an eerie sound with blood rattling under his mask.

"I knew a person like you once, he had the same blank face you did, only more arrogant, and had black hair. He said the same thing, give up. Give up. Give Up. GIVE UP!"

Naruto charged, faster than before, Fate sent out a double layer palm thrust, only for the blonde to skid in between his arms, avoiding the attack entire and directly bashing his head to Fate's

**Play Gurren Lagann – Happily Ever After by Nakagawa Shoko**

"He couldn't stop me thousands of years ago."

Naruto swung his left arm around Fate's head and pulled it down to smash it on his knee, reminiscent of the time they first fought. Fate staggered back before attacking again, faster this time, stronger, lightning fast punches that fell like rain, a vicious side kick, a claw swipe, a hammer strike from above.

They all missed.

The crippled blonde somehow completely evaded all his attacks.

'_Wh-where is he getting his strength? He should be dead by now!'_

"He took away my wife, and I still didn't give up."

Stepping in between the attacks again, Naruto braced his left shoulder against Fate's chest and stomped his foot causing a crater to form, using the force and momentum of the stomp to shoulder check the white haired boy causing Fate to fly back from the force and stick his shoulder back into its socket at the same time. He stifled a cry of pain. But his left arm was back in business.

"You can take away my arms, and I'll still kick you to death."

As if to show he was serious, Naruto ran at the white haired boy, evading a punch, one foot stomped on Fate's foot hard enough to create a crater, Fate's eyes widened in shock at the pain. Pining the foot beneath him so that Fate wasn't going anywhere, Naruto slung his one good arm over Fate's shoulder and fired off a multitude of high speed knee bashes, finishing with a reverse kick that nailed Fate straight in the chest and sent them rocketing over a stunned Negi and Asuna.

"You can take my legs, and I'll still bite you to death."

Drawing two combat knives from somewhere, one in his teeth and another in his good hand, he ducked under the furious punch, stabbing the knife in his good arm into Fate's shoulder joint, causing it to go limp while he leapt up from his crouched position, the knife in his mouth slashing Fate from hip to shoulders, desperately suppressing the pain Fate tried to grab the blonde but Naruto slid around him like an eel in water _'Fast!'_ and stabbed the knife into Fate's other shoulder joint.

'_I-impossible, his getting faster, and his at-attacks, my barrier is still working but each of them are strong enough that it doesn't matter, lessened or not they still hurt!'_

Fate staggered.

A gentle palm was placed on his chest and felt another behind him.

Fate stared stupidly at the blonde in front of him as the blonde gave him a sad smile and whispered so only Fate could hear him, "Wherever you are, next time we fight, I want to fight the real you, not some stupid puppet."

Naruto's face hardened, "Death couldn't take me, Sasuke couldn't take me, Obito couldn't take me, Kakashi couldn't take me and I'll be damned if I let you and some giant glowing asshole take me. MY NAME IS NAMIKAZE NARUTO, REMEMBER IT SO YOU CAN QUIT TRYING TO MAKE ME GIVE UP BECAUSE I NEVER GIVE UP AND I NEVER BREAK MY PROMISES.

The blonde roared, **"ASURA RYUU : TOMON, TAIHO SHOUHOU - OVERLOAD!"**

Fate stared in shock as the attack blew through his barriers like wet paper. A palm thrust with the power of five gates behind it exploded into his body with nowhere to go as a similar attack from behind bounced it back in and together they resonated inside the puppet's body, causing it to violently explode from the inside out.

Everyone present watched in awe, especially Negi as the person he called Nii-san fought with everything he had. Broken body, broken arms, nothing stopped him and he just bulldozed through with the weight of his conviction. He didn't notice that the petrifaction of his arm had stopped with the puppet's destruction.

"Not bad… not bad at all…newcomer." A new voice spoke."

Everyone swivelled around to see two newcomers, a tall elegant girl with light green hair and a shorter blonde haired girl dressed in a black skimpy dress with a typical ragged cloak.

"That was sooooo awesome Mister Blondie! He went BOOM, there wasn't even anything left!" Naruto quirked an eyebrow as the small excited doll on the blonde's left shoulder spoke.

He assumed this was the support since Chachamaru was there and she didn't seem to be against them from her peaceful expression.

Then again, he hadn't exactly seen any other expression other than the same one on her face since they met.

He wanted to say something but he stumbled, his legs lost any strength they had left from the split second opening of the Fifth Gate.

As he watched the floor race up to him with his blurry vision something caught him and lowered him onto the floor.

Someone with red hair as she lowered Naruto's head onto her lap and her hair tumbled all around him, obscuring the rest of the world. Tears splashed slowly from her eyes onto his cracked mask. She tried to remove the mask so he could see his eyes properly, but failed as it wouldn't budge, it seemed like only Naruto could remove it.

Giving up she just touched the cracked white porcelain that was dotted with red, "You stupid idiot…."

"Heh…. I sai-said it once before, I'm your stupid idiot," Naruto weakly replied with a lopsided grin although he forgot Asuna couldn't see it under his mask.

"Baka… don't joke about things like that and why didn't you tell anyone you were hurt so badly?"

"Di-didn't make a di-difference. I still had my promise to keep. Wasn't going to st-stop till then.

Setsuna and Konoka landed before both of them rushed towards the fallen Naruto, all three girls surrounded the blond. They had been watching the fight after Setsuna rescued Konoka but Setsuna refused to go down even if her own heart burned to go down and join the fight at Naruto's side because Konoka would have been completely open and helpless to resist any attacks to capture her again.

From the sidelines behind Evangeline, Chachamaru felt a slight ember burn to life where her stomach would have been. She wanted to go to his side and kick the other three away as well but didn't know why.

Cocking her head to the side, a sign of confusion from the gynoid, she started running diagnostics on why her processors suddenly listed the three girls as hostile.

When nothing turned up she gave up, and manually relisted them as friendlies.

Only for them to go right back to the hostile list.

Chachamaru gave up and just left them there with a mental reminder not to _accidentally _shoot one of them. Ahem. Yes accidentally.

A great creaking sound reminded everyone that the 'glowing giant asshole' as Naruto put it was still around, with an enraged Chigusa on its shoulder.

"Yeah…. So how do we take out big, shiny and smelly with his pet Monkey over there?" Naruto said from his very comfortable position. The three girls around him stifled giggles. Only he would have the balls to call a lesser God smelly.

"Heh, leave that to someone like me, the rest of you are just amateurs, Chachamaru! Get it ready!"

"Understood Master. " Two protrusions unfolded themselves from her back as she pulled a very large canon from somewhere, floating to a good vantage point she readied the canon, "Wind speed vectors optimal, batteries fully charged, barrier shell matrix completely activated and charged, target acquired. I am ready Master."

"FIRE!"

A giant beam lanced out and hit the lesser God in the chest causing it to stagger back a bit as a giant dome of light surrounded it, beams lancing all around wrapped around its arms and torso, stopping it cold, unnoticed by everyone else, Chigusa quickly slipped away, she didn't want to see what happened next. Using the Konoe heiress's power's she had achieved complete control over the lesser God, but the moment Konoka had been taken from her, her control over the God slipped.

Best case scenario, it rampaged across Kyoto again like it did 18 years ago.

Back with Negi's group, Evangeline smirked proudly at what she was about to do, turning back to face Negi, who was still staring at his Nii-san, she snapped him out of his daze, "Negi Springfield, witness what your father wasted 15 years ago, if he had me by his side, we would have been unstoppable."

The vampire slowly started to float as magical energy crackled all around her tiny body and an unseen wind whipped her hair and cloak about.

Down on the ground, on Asuna's lap, no one noticed a blonde eyebrow quirk since everyone was watching the floating Evangeline slowly rise up and an awesome amount of energy that blanketed the area.

When the vampire started channelling her magic, he finally noticed something. An abundant amount of chakra was also flowing into him, glancing at his broken wrist; he gave a slight grimace as he heard a slight crack as his body regenerated.

A sly grin appeared on his face.

Up in the sky's with Chachamaru beside her, Evangeline chanted, "Lic Lac La Lac Lilac, Heed the Contract and Serve Me, Queen of Ice! Come, Unending Darkness, Eternal Glacier!"

A tower of spiralling crystalline ice sprung up around the lesser God with a crashing sound as the barrier fell. Frozen in place the lesser God could do nothing to stop its eventual demise.

"Kukuku, an absolute zero field effect freezing spell, even a giant monster like that cant stop me, the Dark Evangel! I am the Mage Queen, an evil mage without equal! Now die!"

Below on the ground, Asuna sweat dropped, "Neh…. Evangeline is getting a bit carried away isn't she?"

Everyone around her nodded. Even Naruto.

"Bring Death to All That Has Life, Eternal Rest! Cosmic Catastrophe, Shatter!"

The ice tower cracked. Soon the entire thing started shattering with a tinkling roar as fell off the lesser God in swathes.

"Hnn.. even a Kishin falls before my might."

"Master."

"What?"

"It's not dead."

"Eh?"

"In fact its healing."

Evangeline spun around to look at incredulously at the behemoth that was clearly injured but struggling to stand again.

"WHAT! That's not possible! Chachamaru! What happened?"

"According to my database regarding the ceremony and the seal tag that was put on Konoe-san, on the ground, it was supposed to be completely controlled as long as the seal on Konoe-san wasn't taken off. As long as that was there, it would be completely enthralled by Chigusa, a puppet, but unable to take advantage of its power."

Evangeline paled, "The tag was taken off nearly 5 minutes ago, which means the beast is slowly regaining its instincts, meaning it will be capable of using its full power soon?"

"That is correct Mas-" Chachamaru immediately flew at her Master, "Wha?" pulling the vampire out of the way of a very big glowing fist.

"Roooarr!"

Evangeline and Chachamaru quickly landed beside Negi's group, "Hurry take cover! That monster is going to go on a rampage!"

"What!" Everyone shouted.

"No time to explain, basically as long as Konoe-san was under Chigusa's control, that beast would be a puppet absolutely under Chigusa's thrall, but when Sakurazaki-san took off the tag on Konoe-san, that monster slowly reverted and regained its instincts. Instincts that allow it to use the power it couldn't as a puppet!"

As if to punctuate Evangeline's words, the titan opened its gaping maw and everyone could see power gathering inside its jaw before it let everything lose with an apocalyptic beam.

"Guaaah!"

Evangeline fell to the ground, panting. A 10 meter thick wall of ice that was cracked with a gaping hole that nearly penetrated all the way stood before her. Chachamary, fire another barrier bullet, we need time!"

"Very well master, but this time, it will only stop the Dai Oni for 2 minutes."

"Just do it!" Evangeline said before turning to face Negi's group, "Hurry! Before that thing regains more of it powers we need to take it down!"

Negi gaped, if even the Dark Evangel failed, what could he and his students hope to do about that thing? "Bu-but we can't! We're not powerful enough, Asuna and Setsuna are already tir-"

A fist slammed on top of Negi's head stopping his words cold.

"Oi, oi, I saw you battle monsters, that albino prick and the Monkey Lady with everything you got. Each one of you did. And now because a glowing giant banana headed Oni with four arms starts going ape shit you become a coward?"

Negi looked up at his smirking nii-san that was being propped up by Asuna, one hand over her shoulder, "Bu-but what can we do? It's HUGE!"

"Same thing anyone does. Same thing we will always do. We beat that thing down again and again until it can't get up anymore, look behind you, if we leave, there's nothing stopping that thing from rampaging into Kyoto. Into the hotel where everyone is staying, to the temple where Miyazaki-san, pervy reporter and Saotome-san are petrified. You wanna let them down like that?"

Negi went stony. "Let's kick ass."

"Heh, perfect," facing Evangeline he spoke, "Oi, panty flasher blondie, you have a plan?"

Evangeline fumed and ranted about not being a panty flasher, but was completely ignored. Giving a huff when she realized no one was listening to her rant, "Despite having my power's back, it's still limited by the seal; the best I can do at the moment are several consecutive _Snowstorms of Darkness _even then I still need to catch my breath back after blocking that stupid beam. Everyone will have to pitch in and take it down bit by bit."

Turning back to face the rest of the girls, he gave them a thumbs up, "Let's kick ass."

"Matte! I want to help too." Everyone spun to face the speaker.

Konoka stood with a resolved face, "I can help, I just need one of those Pactio things Asuna and Setsuna has!"

Before the words even registered, Naruto had already tripped Negi before he could run away and restrained him; Chamo was already drawing a magic circle complete with pervy giggling sound effects and a very wide smile.

Both of them grinned and gave each other a thumbs up as Naruto stuck a tied and trussed Negi in the circle for Konoka to kiss.

Negi looked at his nii-san with betrayal in his wide watery eyes, only to get a very cheesy grin in reply.

When Konoka saw his reluctance, she gave him a very wide, very watery puppy dog eyes, and trembling pouting lips, "Negi-sensei doesn't think I'm good enough to kiss?"

Negi did what all men did when faced with that look. He crumpled like a wet sock. Behind her back, Konoka shot Naruto a thumbs up.

She moved closer to Negi's face and gave him a peck on the lips. With a cry of Pactio from the ermine, a glowing card appeared between the two teenagers who had just kissed.

A card appeared with Konoka wearing a Miko outfit and wielding two fans. The title of her Pactio : _"Bellatrix Medicans"_

Negi moped in the corner, mourning for his lost purity.

"Heh! Look alive people, that stupid thing is breaking out from the barrier, Let's show him that even normal humans can defeat Gods if we try hard enough! CHARGE!"

**Play Scandal Baby by SCANDAL**

All of them charged forward, glancing at Setsuna, Asuna nodded as she leapt forward in front of Setsuna, with an almighty push, Setsuna launched Asuna at the beast's head, while she spread her wings and flew low, summoning her pactio artefact into her off hand she focused Ki into both blades, "_Shinmei Ryuu Ougi : Nihyakuretsu Oukazan!"_

Both her arms blurred as she slashed the Kishin's torso again and again, focussing on a single point.

Above her Asuna jumped around the flailing beast as she slapped it around with a _Harisen, _looking down she frowned when she noticed Setsuna's move, _'I have to get myself a finisher move soon,'_

At the shores where Konoka, Negi, Naruto, Chachamaru and Evangeline had remained to provide ranged support, Konoka had summoned her fans, _Flabellum Euri_ and _Flabellum Australe_, and was impressing everybody who took the time to watch her.

She moved as if she was dancing a variation of the _Kyomai_, a traditional Kyoto style dance with fans to worship the gods in Shinto shrines, only deadlier as each wave of the _Flabellum Euri _sent razor sharp winds that sliced anything it passed while the _Flabellum Australe_ alternated between gouts of flame that was enhanced by the razor winds to burn limbs and water that froze into ice along with the wind to spear the beast whenever it was about to hit Asuna or Setsuna.

Chachamaru was beam spamming her giant cannon. Nuff said.

Negi was gathering of all the magic power he had left for a special combo he had thought off while watching Setsuna wield two blades, "_Ras Tel Scir Ma Magister, Veniant spiritus aeriales fulgurientes, cum fulgurationi flet tempestas austrina,"_

Two giant orbs of lightning and wind encircled both palms as Negi roared ",_ Jovis Tempestas Fulgurientes Duplexio!"_ and released his spell, two giant high speed yellow beams, encircled by green violent wind roared forth as they encircled each other in a spiral, this time, unlike the first Negi tried to cast the spell, the spiralling feature of his spells pierced through the lesser God's torso causing it to roar in pain. Leaving a smoking hole for all to see, however it wasn't enough as they could already see the edges of the hole healing.

"Asuna! Get clear!" the red haired girl heard from beneath her as she slapped the beast's head with her _Harisen_ again, jumping clear of the beast she landed a distance away in the shallow waters as Setsuna executed her strongest skill, charging her nodachi with all the Ki she could muster, she manipulated it to form lightning, _"Shinmeiryuu Ougi : RaimeiKen_!" Stabbing her sword right at the bottom of the lesser God's torso, she pierced deep into the Kishin's torso before running vertically up the God's torso, leaving a smoking and sizzling trail, right as she jumped of the God's head a spiralling beam of yellow and green blasted through the centre of its torso.

**Few minutes before**

Evangeline stood at the side lines, charging up power as her magical aura started to show again. Glancing to her side where the blonde seemed to be leaning against a tree in meditation she asked, "Oi Blondie, you just going to sit there when you told everyone else to charge?"

"Who said I'm just sitting?"

Just as he said that, a red aura started to surround the blonde, causing Evangeline to falter with her eyes wide open, _'His an akuma? N-no… the aura is too diluted. Half demon maybe. Hehehe, old man you hired an interesting person,'_

Naruto hadn't felt this good in a while, possibly because his chakra flow felt smooth. Not obstructed and being sapped from him like it had been for the past few weeks.

It felt... liberating.

Glancing at the roaring Kishin, which was currently being slapped around by a paper fan again, which was completely hilarious, he frowned. Despite the light atmosphere he had instilled in everyone, it wouldn't be easy to take a Kishin, a Lesser God down.

He would know, he fought real Gods before, putting that thing down permanently required nothing less than a Gobiko Imari. Already it was overwhelming Setsuna and Asuna while completely brushing off Konoka's attacks off easily. Negi had nothing left, except for maintaining his three Ministra Magi.

It was getting to a point where it looked like using the last Ace up his sleeve would be inevitable. Hence his meditation, gathering chakra and natural energy to line his insides and vital organs, bulking up their natural resistance before doing what he had in mind.

To his side he could feel as Evangeline was finally ready as she started flying again.

What she did would decide whether or not it became necessary.

"Oi, you, the red haired girl and the Shinmei Ryuu swordswoman, get away from there!"

"Grrr… being ordered around like this just because I don't have some flashy finisher skill," Asuna gnashed her teeth as Setsuna sweat dropped, "It's ok, Asuna-san, let's get out of here, whatever Evangeline is going to do, it's going to be big."

Once they had gotten clear, Evangeline started chanting, "Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes! Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis. Nivis Tempestas Obscurans Duxplexio!"

Frozen spires of ice pierced 2 upper arms of the Lesser God, its roaring gradually grew quieter as it slowly froze over.

This time Evangeline continued chanting again, not letting time for the Kishin to regenerate, "Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes! Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis. Nivis Tempestas Obscurans Duplexio!"

Another double spire of dark purple ice pierced the Lesser God, rooting it to place, each arm pierced by one spire.

Evangeline panted as the Kishin roared, they could see it was working but before anyone could move it thrashed about, waves and wind violently threw Asuna and Setsuna roughly on to the shore and shot another one of its beams out wildly, decimating the ice that stopped it from moving.

It's not enough, we hurt it but it's still coming back!" Setsuna shouted desperately.

The Kishin flung a big rock that threatened to land on Konoka, desperately the Miko outfit wearing girl waved her fans, but the rock was too large to be stopped, she was only saved when Setsuna managed to fly in and pull her out of the way, "Th-thanks Se-chan," a shaken Konoka managed to speak.

Naruto gritted his teeth, desperately hurrying the bulk up process as fast as he dared.

Evangeline was busy dodging the flailing arms, Chachamaru tried to help her master by firing great shots off to try and deflect the arms but her magical battery was running on dry. All too soon Evangeline slipped up and barely had time to do anything as one of its arms had homed in on her, recognizing her as the biggest threat to its continued existence, bracing for impact she was shocked when the biggest fist she had ever seen was stopped by a flaming Ifrit that grabbed the incoming arm, lifted the entire thing up, rock, torso and all and threw it clear to the other side of the lake. Unknown and unseen, the great claymore in the seal on his back cracked slightly.

Everyone did a double take, it wasn't an Ifrit; it was a panting Naruto. His cloak was now blood red as was his mask.

His presence was near awe inspiring but his appearance was demonic.

Wreathed completely in red burning flames that seemed to form an ethereal magatama necklace and two large horns made of fire, his torso, arms and slacks were wrapped in black chains that jingled ominously whenever he moved.

A stab of pain shot up his arm, already the form was hurting him, he had no time.

Shooting forwards, he trailed flames in the air as he moved to land an axe kick on the monster's head, causing it to smash deeper into the ground.

Landing on the Kishin's face, he swung his rifle to the forefront, intending on pushing all his power into the rifle, at the least it would leave a dent before he tried more drastic measures, only to be surprised when words scrolled down in front of his eyes as if on some invisible screen on the inside of the mask.

_User Profile Integrated._

_Sealed Hatred Form Activated_

_Vindice Deux Mark II Burst Mode Unlocked_

His rifle started to blur, the plating moved forward while the handle bulked up until he was left holding a large oblong like rifle that was leaking the same red flames its owner did from flaps at the side.

Naruto grinned, this was interesting.

Looking down, the Kishin hadn't given up yet and a large energy ball was forming, ready for a point blank release in Naruto's face. Shoving the rifle up a nostril, a targeting screen appeared in front of his face. Not that he needed it.

The large square barrel separated into two prongs, leaving the thinner main barrel in between as an orb of energy started to crackling at the end as well.

"I've fought real Gods before, a False God like you should return to the underworld where you belong. _Vindice Deux Mk II : Zen Kaihou_!"

The Kishin roared in defiance as it released his attack at the same time Naruto did.

Two retro thrusters burst out at the sides of the rifle to brace Naruto from being thrown by the force of his rifle as he tried to blow the Kishin's brains out, while the Kishin's beam grazed his side.

Everyone watched as a blue beams lanced out from the Kishin's mouth, while another beam, one a burning red pierced the beast's head, soon both beams faltered before clashing, forming into a purple dome that destroyed anything in its vicinity.

When the smoke cleared, everyone could see a topless, panting Naruto standing atop a rock that was completely shattered, nothing remained of the Kishin. His left arm and side was completely charred.

Everyone rushed to his side as Negi jumped into his arms for a bear hug. Flinching at the contact, he spoke, "Oi, oi, hurt man here. Don't touch the black parts please. I know I smell very good while roasted but I don't think the skin has grown back yet."

Suddenly they all froze before turning as one to stare at the calm surface of the lake. A silhouette slowly faded out of the water as everyone tensed, prepared for another battle when everybody recognized the silhouette as Fate.

The white haired boy stepped forward and everyone tensed.

"I heard your words Namikaze-san. I won't forget. Even though my superiors wont like this, I look forward to meeting the both you and Negi as well, again."

"Heh, count on it, Shiro Chibi."

Fate mumbled something about stupid blonde before fading back into the water.

Naruto gave everyone a goofy smile, "Yosh! Everyone let's go back for breakfast!" before toppling over backwards in a dead faint.

******Broken Faith******

Everything was black and his body sent slightly stabs of pain to his brain at every movement he made, even if it was just a twitch of the finger.

As he wondered what woke him up from his very comforting sleep where pain didn't exist, the reason made itself known.

"You can't leave Setsuna-san! "

"Nooo~ everyone saw my true form I must leave, otherwise they will turn me into an ermine as well!"

"No! you can't leave, you have to protect Konoka-san in person!"

A shoji door slid open as a figure stepped out , glanced around and sat beside Chachamaru with a groan, "Yare yare, why are you guy's so noisy in the morning?" the figure spoke before accepting a cup of tea from Chachamaru, he sipped it, before looking at the contents of his cup. "Damn, this is good tea, Chachamaru-san, combine that with cute uniform you're wearing, you'd make the perfect wife."

Outwardly no one noticed any difference. The pot in her hand was a completely different story as it started to boil over.

"Naruto-nii san! / sama!" both of them cried out as they dashed over to him, "You're alright! Konoka managed to heal most of your injuries before we reached the shrine but the all the healers in Headquarters said you'd be comatose for at least a week!"

Naruto waved it off like an insignificant fly, "I always heal fast. Anyway whats with the noise? It woke me up,"

Nagi started whining, "Nii-san, Setsuna-san said she had to leave because she showed everybody her true form! But that's not true right?she has to stay and protect Konoka, stay friends with Asuna so we can all go back to Mahora together right?"

Naruto glanced at the fidgeting Setsuna-san, "I see…. I'll go pack up and get ready to leave as well then."

"Eeeeh? You can't!" everyone there minus Evangeline shouted, Chachamaru felt heat rise to her cheeks when she realized she had squeaked a quiet "Eeeh" as well.

"Well… everyone there saw _my _true form as well right?"

Memories of a flame wreathed Naruto with two great horns and wrapped in ominous chains made everyone shiver unconsciously.

"I mean, I have _horns, _you get two white beautiful angel wings. You don't change at all, what do I become? A walking barbecue grill. Based on that alone if anyone has to leave, it's me right?" Naruto shrugged, "So if Setsuna leaves, I leave as well."

Setsuna who had been shrinking into herself more and more as Naruto's monologue went on, finally mumbled, "Alright, alright... I understand, I won't leave."

Naruto shot Negi a wink and Negi beamed a smile back at Naruto.

When Negi joined the trio having tea, Setsuna sighed before kneeling beside Naruto and muttered so that Negi couldn't hear, "That's not fair you know, guilt tripping me into staying." before accepting some super hot tea which she gave a weird look before setting it down politely.

Naruto smirked, "It's your own fault, besides, think about Konoka showing you those unfair teary eyes. I saved you the trouble of looking into those."

Setsuna gave a wry smile, "True, I guess I have you to thank for that."

Suddenly the devil herself showed up with Asuna as both of them knocked into Setsuna, who in turn knocked into Naruto, who fell on the very hot cup of tea.

"Se-chan! We got trouble!"

"Setsuuuunaaaa-saaaaan! The paper copies of ourselves in the hotel are going berserk!"

In the background they didn't notice a Naruto rolling on the ground screaming about hot things as Negi poked him with a stick.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto fell onto his futon and stretched comfortably. It had been a while since he had the chance to relax like this, it was a loooong two days. Looking out the window, he noticed it was still early and figured he would take a few hours of nap before joining the rest. Negi and the rest were down in the hall explaining why they had 'performed' a strip show.

Naruto shivered, his own substitute had started stripping beside Negi's as well, and now some of the more lecherous girls in the school had their eyes glued to his butt whenever they walked by and they had gained a couple of Yaoi fangirls. Cue shiver.

He cried anime tears as he wondered why it was so hard for him to have a normal student life.

Soon the blonde rolled into his comforter and drifted off into blissfulness.

Chachamaru walked in, hoping to get to speak quietly with the blonde, she hadn't had the chance to speak in a while due to the trip. When she saw him asleep, a gentle smile spread on her face as she knelt beside his futon.

Watching his chest steadily rise and fall for a while, she made sure that he was truly asleep before stretching out her hand to satisfy her curiosity about his whisker marks.

******Broken Faith******

Evangeline walked around, looking for Chachamaru, she would let the rest sleep for a while before 'persuading' everyone to go out with her. They deserved the rest after all.

Frowning that she couldn't find her servant, she finally gave up and engaged her senses looking for Chachamaru's signature. Her eyebrows nearly reached her hairline when she realized exactly where her servant was. Stomping up the stairs furiously she barged into her male classmate's room to see a head of blonde hair and green hair wrapped up together in the futon.

A furious blush spreading across her pale skin, she ran at the futon, intent on killing the blonde.

******Broken Faith******

Yukihiro Ayaka wandered around the hotel, looking for Kazumi, she was supposed to pass a message to the reporter from Shizuna-sensei. When she reached the floor where the teachers stayed, the blonde blushed slightly as memories of a stripping Negi flashed across her mind.

As she was goofily walking about with a large smile she heard a thumping sound from inside Negi-sensei's quarters. Curious, she peeked in, only to realize the thumping came from her blonde male counterpart's room. Now very curious she slid the _shoji_ open slightly to peek in.

Immediately a fire red stain grew on her cheeks as her eyes filled with righteous anger, inside the room, a head of blonde hair, obviously Naruto was writhing about inside the Futon with what looked like Chachamaru and Evangeline. How could he! They were only 15! Intent on running in and chastising them, she violently pulled back the blankets.

Her last thoughts were, _'Not again!'_

******Broken Faith******

Konoka climbed the stairs, wondering if Naruto was free, she wanted to ask if he had more information about Pactios seeing as his could somehow change shape, opening the door, Konoka called out to see if she could find the missing blonde, an answering thump answered her, assuming it was Naruto letting her in, she stepped in and politely closed the door. Moving to the shoji, she opened it and her eyes went wide. Naruto was in bed with 3 girls! Blushing furiously she was about to run out of the apartment before a muffled scream reached her ears. Turning around she realized all the girls were gagged.

Did the blonde have some sort of fetish?

Curious, she moved closer to see what was going on.

Why were all the girls shaking their heads so violently for?

******Broken Faith******

Asuna and Setsuna were talking about going out for a late breakfast, wanting to invite Negi and Naruto, they both headed for the teacher's rooms.

Opening the door to the apartments, Setsuna and Asuna stepped in, "Negi! Naruto, you in here?"

An answering thump came from Naruto's room.

As both of them walked over, Asuna slid open the Shoji to see something that really pissed both her and Setsuna-san off. Naruto was in bed with a lot of girls, including _Ayaka_ of all people!

Setsuna was seeing red over something else, Konoka was in bed with Naruto, her purity was tarnished! She had to kill the blonde now. She didn't have that many friends. Oh well.

They both ran at the futon, intent on beating something up.

Preferably something male.

******Broken Faith******

Negi meandered about the hotel, a frown on his face. Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka, and Naruto were all missing. Heck, even Ayaka hadn't come around for her daily dose of cuddling Negi.

Giving up, he decided to take a nap, they knew where his room was, they could find him if anything was up.

Once he reached the room, he heard some commotion from inside Naruto's room. Had they all been in his room the whole time? And if so what were they doing in there?

When he opened the shoji, his mind shut down at the over 18 scene.

"Bugya?"

"Mmmmphh!"

"Mugyah?"

"Mmhmmphmph!"

"Hawawa?"

All the girl's sweat dropped at the vacant expression on their homeroom teacher's face. Asuna looked at Setsuna and they both cried anime tears.

Negi wandered closer in a daze as they all panicked and tried to tell him not to.

They failed.

******Broken Faith******

**3 hours later**

Chao walked in wanting to report that some of her group was missing and came to standstill, her eyes bugging out of her head at the scene. Naruto, Evangeline, Chachamaru, Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka, Negi, Akira, Mana, Yuuna, Ku Fei, Ayaka, Kazumi and Chizuru were somehow all rolled up in one futon, all of them neatly hogtied and gagged in a row except for Naruto who was still snoring peacefully and nuzzling Chachamaru's nape since she happened to be the one closest at the time. Evangeline's fingers were even tied so that she couldn't even _point_ at him for a desperate spell.

Chao face palmed.

"Do you all want to get out?"

All of them nodded vigourously. Chachamaru nearly didn't.

Chao face palmed again before quietly walking over, much to all of the girl's panic, but she wasn't attacked for some reason. Gently walking around to Naruto's left side, she tapped his left elbow in a coordinated sequence.

Naruto immediately snapped awake and sat up, blearily looking around at the sudden wake up call. all the girl's stared incredulously, t_hey had to **tap** a sequence on his left elbow to get him to wake up?_

"Ch-chao-san? Wh-yawn-what do you need?"

Chao face palmed again and pointed down.

Naruto followed her finger and stared dumbfoundedly at the 13 people in his bed that were staring back at him.

"I didn't know _all_ of you liked bondage. I thought it was just that blonde one." He mumbled in a dazed tone. Wait Negi? Aren't you supposed to be the one that ties, not the one being tied?"

Chao barely stopped herself from banging her head on the nearest wall. Naruto jiji wasn't very smart when he just woke up.

She tried to gently explain exactly why they were in his bed, that he tied them up, not that they liked bondage.

Naruto just gave her a vacant look, "Oh, ok."

******Broken Faith******

Naruto was kneeling in a dogeza in front of 13 people, "Gomen! It's just a reflex I have! It wasn't on purpose. Honest!" He sheepishly tried to explain.

None of them could look at him in the eye, "Um.. yeah ok err… we err..We have to take err... take class photos! Yes that's it! See you Naruto!" Ayaka said before all of them simultaneously agreed and stampeded out of his room.

Naruto looked at Negi, "You believe me right, Negi? Negi? Why are you poking your fingers like that?"

Negi averted his face with a blush and poked his fingers together like a certain Hyuuga, "Um…uh, I believe you nii san, but uh… don't do it again alright?"

Naruto looked at him weirdly, "O…k?"

When Negi left, he could swear he heard a small "Kyaa~" from the red head.

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note**

**In my fic, some Pactio Artifacts have two stages, well for certain people. And yes I already planned out a lot of the people's Pactios, although I don't mind recommendations for new or existing Pactios. **

**Naruto is slightly special in that, when he goes into his Sealed Hatred form it unlocks a special form, the Burst Mode, basically a more powerful form of the second stage.**

**His first stage of the Vindice Deux resembles a large Barrete M82A1 (XM107) with a longer than normal barrel.**

**His second stage will be posted on my profile, essentially it looks like a portable Rail gun.**

**As for a weaker-than-normal Evangeline, despite her insane power, I don't think I've ever seen her cast two High Ancient spells in a row. Not to mention, she isn't fully released, probably about 60% only. Cosmic Catastrophe is a two part spell, not two separate ones. In fact in the manga, she's like Negi's last resort tactical nuke with horrible recharge time. She doesn't really play any other role other than mentor.**

**Oh btw, this is the last of my prewritten chapters, 5 chapters in 4 days, not bad eh? For now anyway, I got a batch for the festival written already, gehehehe… And this will likely not be updated for awhile since I want Amethyst Love to catch up. Although…. If I get more reviews I might change my mind =p**

******Broken Faith******

_**Βασιλισκ**__**ὲ**__** γαλεώτε μετά κ**__**ᾦ**__**κτ**__**ὼ**__** ποδ**__**ῶ**__**ν καί κακο**__**ῖ**__**ν **__**ὀ**__**μμάτοιν τό φ**__**ῶ**__**σ **__**ἐ**__**μ**__**ῇ**__** χειρί καθίασ τ**__**ῷ**__** κακ**__**ῷ**__** δέργματι τοξευσάτω! Κακόν **__**ὄ**__**μμα πετρ**__**ῶ**__**σεως!**_ - Basilisk, Lizard with Eight Legs and Evil Eyes! Light Placed into My Hand, Shoot Forth the Evil Look! Evil Eye of Petrification

_**Jamada, Doke**_ - You're in my way, get lost

_**Asura Ryuu : Tomon, Taiho Shouhou ( Overload )**_ – Asura Style : Gate of Limit, Great Phoenix Palm Cannon( Overload - Double Palm version)

_**Shinmei Ryuu Ougi : Nihyakuretsu Oukazan**_ – Shinmei Style Secret Move : Two Hundred Great Cherry Blossom Cuts

_**Shinmeiryuu Ougi : RaimeiKen**_** – **Shinmei Style Secret Move : Crying Thunder God Blade

_**Vindice Deux Mk II : Zen Kaihou**_ – Vindice Deux Mark 2 : Full Release

******Broken Faith******

**Dont get so hyped about the little part at the end with Negi. I in no way support Yaoi, and it was just meant to be a joke and jab against Early Canon Negi that was still rather flaky at this point in time. I in no way support Yaoi, and that andti Yaoi filter _STILL_ isnt here yet.**


	10. Ninja in Middle School 1

**Broken Faith 10**

**School Life. How Hard Can It Be For a Ninja?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Negima, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Mahou Negima Sensei is owned by Akamatsu Ken**

**Part 1 of 3 of my back to back Christmas Special release. Merry Christmas boys and girls. ENjoy.**

**Soundtrack List**

**Fields of Hope – **Rie Tanaka

******Broken Faith******

Naruto sweat dropped.

They were walking to town in order to meet Konoka's father after the fiasco in the hotel, and at the moment he was at the back of the group led by Negi and everybody who had been at been present at the Kansai Magical Association. Of the 10 people, 6 people still couldn't look him in the eye without blushing; Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna, Negi, Chachamaru and Kazumi, causing the Saotome girl to occasionally glance at them in suspicion.

He cried silently to himself, it wasn't his fault he had bad sleeping habits.

Desperate times called for desperate measures and all that jazz.

Soon they arrived where Eishun told them to meet up, at a forested mountain somewhere near the Kansai Magical Association Headquarters. The lean man was leaning against the railing and smoking a cigarette as he came into view. Konoka stomped right up to the man and snatched his cigarette before throwing it away, hands at her hips, she started scolding her father.

Naruto smiled as he saw the father daughter interaction. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever be that lucky.

After grovelling to his daughter, Konoe turned back to his daughter's friend and gave them all a sheepish greeting, "It's good to see everyone back to full health and enjoying the remainder of your time in Kyoto," gesturing at the forest behind him, he spoke to Negi, "Your father's home is behind those trees, a narrow three story building'.

Together the group slowly walked up a path shaded by big trees while Naruto, Konoe, Evangeline, Chachamaru and Negi conversed at the back of the group. "I have to thank all of you for your efforts, thanks to you, the resealing of Ryoumen-Sukuna no Kami went without a problem, in fact, due to whatever your group did to him, it'll have to spend at least a century or two to healing the damage before it can return to its former power."

Negi was strangely quiet, "I'm happy that we could help, but what about the Monkey Lady and her helpers? We were so busy fighting the Kishin that we didn't see her escape."

The mood in the small group dropped, "We still haven't been able to find Amagasaki Chigusa, although it's just a matter of time, Tsukuyomi has also left the Shinmei Ryuu school before we could reach her and she has disappeared.

"Wh-what about Kotarou?"

"The Inugami boy? We managed to capture him thanks to a Nagase-san, although he was working for Chigusa, we doubt his punishment will be too harsh, he was easily led and didn't really have any malice and just wanted to find a strong opponent."

Negi breathed a sigh of relief, causing Konoe to smile, even though they had been enemies on the battlefield, Negi was still concerned for the boy which was more than he could say for many others.

Naruto unexpectedly spoke, "What about the Shiro Chibi? Was there any information you could find on him?"

Konoe looked up in surprise, "Shi-Shiro Chibi?" he repeated with a questioning manner.

"Yeah, Fate something or other. It was a complicated name."

"Ah...the biggest problem of the group, KMA has their best investigators looking into that, but i shamefully admit that we could find no records of a Fate Averuncus other than that he was a transfer student from the Istanbul Magical Association that came to Japan to train, it is most likely a false trail and we had no further progress since then."

"I see..."

Soon the group reached a part of the path where the tops of a modern stone building could be seen.

"I'm sorry that it's a bit over grown, no one has been here in 10 years but i try to at least keep the inside clean. Please come in Negi-sensei."

Negi was nearly trembling with anticipation as they all walked in.

It was a rather normal 3 story townhouse, narrow and one of the walls consisted entirely of books which gained the approval of 3-A's librarians.

Naruto looked around, there was a funny feeling coming from one of the upper floors.

Together everyone explored the house; the librarians started salivating and climbed the racks while Kazumi reclined on the sofa. Evangeline trailed her finger across a desk with a clean mug on it. She covertly looked around and brought to mug up to her face with shaking hands.

"Master, don't be a pervert, if you want an indirect kiss, please kiss Negi-sensei."

"Kyaaa! Chachamaru!" Evangeline noticed everyone looking at her and she blushed deeply before blustering, "I-it's nothing, Chachamaru was just saying something stupid again!"

Shrugging, everyone went back to exploring the house.

On the second landing, Negi was religiously looking through some rare magical books as Konoe stepped up beside him with a gentle smile.

"Hey, Negi, Did you find anything interesting?" the question snapped him out of his book fever, "Yes! There a lot of interesting things I want to check...if only I had the time, A-anyway, Konoe-sama. Can you please tell me more about my father? We were...interrupted the last time."

"I see... do you mind if Konoka, Asuna and Setsuna heard this as well? There is something they need to hear."

As the five of them, joined by Evangeline and Cahchamaru went up the stairs, they found Naruto already on the third floor and seemed to be staring intensely at a blank wall. Konoe quirked an eyebrow, the boy seemed to be a sensor of sorts.

"Ah, will you excuse me Naruto-san?"

"Hmm? Oh! Sure," the blonde stepped aside for Konoe to press a switch and a secret compartment folded out of the wall, inside were a few books and a sole picture.

Negi noticed the picture first, "Wh-what is this photo?"

Konoe could hold back a fond smile as he picked up the picture of Ala Rubra, "This is a picture of the Thousand Master, and his comrade in arms. We had a lot of adventures together when I was still young." He passed the picture to Negi.

"Comrades in arms?"

"Yes, from 20 years ago."

"Father..." Negi studied the face of the father he had never met directly intensely until a hand landed on his head and ruffled his hair. Looking up he saw his nii san smirking at him again, emanating a quiet strength as his eyes shifted from Negi to everyone present in turn and jerked his head to indicate the others that were downstairs. Negi smiled back.

His Nii san's silent words were understood.

'_You may be looking for your Father, you may not have a family in blood, but look around you and do not falter, I am here, Asuna is here, Setsuna is here, Konoka is here, everyone downstairs too. They are not your blood family, but they are family in the ways that matter.'_

Konoe watched the two males from behind as they stood side by side, with a wry smile. It was like watching the birth of people who had the potential and will to be legends in their own right, legends bigger even than the Ala Rubra.

Naruto's hand stayed on Negi's head as they watched the picture being passed around by excited girls, they both noticed a weird expression pass Asuna's face as she studied the picture.

Konoe leaned on a railing before he continued with a reminiscent sigh, "I was still a young man when I fought in the war at Nagi's side. When peace returned 20 years ago, Nagi was called the Thousand Master because of his many great and heroic achievements. Amagasaki Chigusa's parents died in that war, that's the reason why she holds such a grudge against the western mages." The gaunt man admitted, "I thought we became inseparable buddies in that war, but 10 years ago he suddenly disappeared. The official records have even stated that his date of death as 1993. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you anymore."

"No… no that's alright. You have done a lot for me already," turning around, Negi gripped the banister tightly.

Chamo spoke from his shoulder, "In the end we couldn't get any leads on your father huh?"

"No… even though we couldn't find anything, just being here, I can feel something. I'm getting closer to him. Closer to finding him and being his equal."

They were both quiet for a while until Kazumi barged in, "Neh~ minna, you finished your complicated conversation yet? It's time to take memorial photos~. I didn't have time to take it at the hotel because…." She glanced at Naruto and blushed deeply, causing Naruto to mope in a corner. "Why? Why can't we just forget that one little incident…. It was a mistake!"

Everyone looked at the moping blonde weirdly.

"A-anyway, let's go downstairs and take it! C'mon, Eva-chan you too!"

As all the girls filed downstairs, Naruto stood up and held Negi back, "Girls, you go ahead and get ready; I need to speak to Negi privately."

All of them looked puzzled but didn't argue, "What is it Nii san?"

Naruto glanced down at Negi before leading him to the alcove where they found the picture, "Negi, don't you think it s weird, in the whole house there is only one picture, and it's inside this one hidden alcove?"

Negi thought for a bit, "Yeah… now that you mention it."

Naruto smiled, "Negi, can you smear some blood on the wall behind where we found the picture?" the blonde said before passing him a kunai.

Negi looked confusedly at the taller blonde but didn't argue before using the weapon to prick his thumb and smearing the blood where his Nii san told him to.

Negi eyes widened as the wall glowed slightly and moved to show a small room, inside was a small collection of books.

But the books weren't what caught his eyes. It was the portrait hanging on the wall opposite them.

Naruto gave a sad smile as Negi stumbled forward, his hand gently trailing across the faces frozen in a portrait of two people.

A handsome red haired man standing behind a proud looking blonde woman in a white dress.

"Kaa san…..?" his eyes shifted downwards where some letters were carved into the wall beneath the portrait.

_**N.S & A.A.E**_

******Broken Faith******

When they took the picture, with all the girls standing in a row with Negi in the middle, while Naruto leaned on the wall behind them with a smug smile, all of them had smiles. But the biggest one belonged to a red eyed Negi.

The girls happily chatted as they walked back down the path towards the KMA before meeting up with the rest of their class for the train back to the academy.

Naruto took a deep breath, savouring the last of the uniquely pure air before he went back to Mahora. He was walking at the back alongside Konoe as they watched his classmates act like the children they really were when 5 of them stiffened when they felt a serious flare of demonic energy, far more malignant than the one Chigusa's onis usually emitted.

Naruto turned grim and glanced at the man beside him, silently asking him to guard the others who hadn't noticed before he faded away with a burst of speed.

Konoe turned back to observe the group of middle school students, Setsuna was worriedly glancing at him than back at Konoka, she apparently wanted to go help Naruto but didn't want to leave Konoka with a real demon around.

Evangeline on the other hand looked completely calm, but he noticed the slight magical build up in her fingers as they flexed, the other hand gestured at her attendant, telling her without words to back up Naruto and gather some extra information about the blonde enigma.

Chachamaru nodded and slipped away while no one noticed.

The gynoid followed Naruto until he reached a clearing where they saw Chigusa in her monkey suit violently kicking what appeared to be a small fox kit despite the aura it emitted.

The blonde hadn't noticed the gynoid, having been too worried about another scheme from Chigusa, when he dropped into the clearing his eyes widened, and anger filled his body once more.

He surged forward, his trenchcoat and mask formed even without a summons.

"Bansho Ten'nin!"

Right as Chigusa was about to land another kick on the trembling fox kit she was wrenched away by some weird force and her body flew through the air towards a black clad figure before being violently stopped by a clawed hand that tightened around her throat.

Absently the pissed blonde noted the surroundings, a demonic summoning circle with some blonde hair used as a regent, something she presumably got from their battle with the Kishin. His angry red eyes turned back to observe the choking and struggling Chigusa that he held in mid air like a rag doll.

He spoke, his mask once again giving his voice the demonic, forbidding tone, "You failed to use the Kishin to your bidding, but didn't give up. So using some hair you got from me, you tried to summon a real demon but because you lacked the power to summon a powerful demon you only managed to summon that small kitsune. Was the pain you caused us not enough? Angry with another failure you took it out on an innocent baby? Is your grudge that hard to let go?" she refused to answer despite the fear in her eyes and kept on trying to free herself.

He tightened his clawed fingers again, "ANSWER ME!"

"Ne-never, I'll keep trying until I cleanse the world of Western Mages!" the Monkey Lady managed to choke out.

Naruto gnashed his teeth and was about to squash her head like a pulp when a gentle hand laid itself on his bicep, glancing over his shoulders burning ruby eyes looked into the green calm ones of Chachamaru.

Not wanting Chachamaru to witness a bloody death, Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself down and spoke, "So be it."

Chachamaru saw his ruby slitted eyes flash purple with concentric rings before Chigusa started screaming and writhing in his grip.

Dropping the screaming mage he rushed to the small kit, his mask and cloak shattered into thin air with a quiet tinkling of breaking glass.

It trembled and tried to crawl away despite its broken legs.

Naruto's heart broke in despair at the pitiful lump.

Gently cradling it up, he tried to soothe the small lump of fur in his arms, only to see that its breathing was starting to slow, his tears fell as memories of another kitsune died in his arms and this one was barely bigger than his palms.

"You're not getting away that easily little one, you still have a life to live, and your parents are waiting for you."

Chachamaru observed the blonde as she guarded the prone Chigusa, although it didn't look necessary, whatever the blonde did, it caused her to scream in utter fear to the point where she pissed herself and blacked out.

She watched as the blonde held out his hand and a glowing aura surrounded the hand. Suddenly a flame sparked and the hand was wreathed in the same fire and chains she had seen yesterday.

Naruto simply ignored the pain, even as the youki started to burn his skin and flesh, laying the burning hand gently to the small kitsune's blood soaked chest, he poured his youki in, trying to heal the lump of fur. It was a gamble, but he didn't have time to rush it to a healer, since the small kit was originally a demon, instead of hurting it, the youki should accelerate its healing.

As he poured more and more youki into its small body, he noticed its legs straightening and healing even as his skin tore off and muscles burned. He could see its breathing get smoother and stronger, almost crying in happiness he poured as much youki as he dared.

The Totsuka no Tsurugi cracked slightly.

Chachamaru observed quietly; his actions were confusing, most people were openly hostile towards demons but that might have been because he seemed to be a demon himself. However that didn't explain the overreaction when he saw the hurt fox. She watched him charge some demonic aura around his arm, even as she saw it clearly burn away his skin and muscle. The care and gentleness that he showed, contradicted the menacing aura his arm was emitting, even as he completely ignored the pain he must have been feeling to heal the kitsune, caused the gears in her chest to speed up and jump around a bit.

She wanted him to look at her like that too.

Tilting her head slightly, she wondered where that strange thought had came from.

The influx of youki caused the small kitsune's body to twitch, and it seemed to grow a bit, before the small lump of fur was completely healed and seemed to be resting peacefully, dropping his wounded hand to his side, he cradled the small thing to his chest with his good hand as he fell on to his rump and sighed in relief.

Suddenly he winced as a cool hand gently lifted his burned hand, looking to his side he saw Chachamaru gently lift his forearm while desperately trying not to gasp at the sight of white bone poking out amongst the red. Her stoic expression never went away even as blood stained her fingers as she tried to bandage it as quickly as possible with some gauze she got from somewhere.

He laughed weakly, "Sorry you had to see that…" He winced, "I usually don't lose control that easily and I can't use my youki for extended periods of time. Anything longer than 5 minutes and I usually burn all my flesh away, and that's if I protect my insides with chak-err magic first."

Chachamaru stayed quiet and finished wrapping his hand before sitting beside him and stroked the small bundle of fur that was cradled against his chest with fascination.

He noticed that her bloodstained hand never let go of his bandaged one even as she did that.

He watched her gently stroke the red fur with a weird expression on her face, "You…you're not afraid? Both of us, "He indicated the lump of fur in his arms with a slight nod of his head before gently shifting it to a more comfortable position, "are demons you know."

Chachamaru's lips nearly quirked in amusement, "And my master is an immortal vampire and self proclaimed evil mage."

"Touche," the blonde admitted.

The small bundle of fur twitched before its muzzle lifted slightly and sniffed the air around it, wary of the danger that had just been threatening it. Small bright eyes opened warily and watched the blonde and green haired one curiously as they talked and the green haired one stroked its fur before inspecting itself, whatever wound it had was completely gone and it felt better than it ever had.

Naruto smiled when he noticed the bright ruby eyes and twitching snout, "You're awake little one." The bright eyes swivelled back to meet his sapphire ones with a question in them.

"I healed you as best I could, now let's get you back to your Otou-san and Kaa-san so that me and the nice lady here can go back home."

Struggling to stand up, he moved to the demonic circle, splashing some blood from his bandaged hand he invoked a ritual before a small red rift opened, just enough for the small one to go through.

Lowering it to the ground he watched as the small kitsune warily sniffed the portal, it turned to watch him and Chachamaru who still had his hand in a gentle grip but he wasn't really complaining.

The kitsune put one paw into the portal before glancing back again. It hesitated before pulling its paw back and scampered back to the blonde one. Jumping on to his shoulders the small fox nuzzled the blonde, causing him to smile gently, "You parents are waiting behind that portal you know." It shook its head and nuzzled him again.

Naruto smiled, "You want to come with me and the nice lady?" he asked as he scratched its chin, the resulting purr was adorable.

The kit yipped a bit before seeming to struggle with its jaws, "O-ot-otou-san."

Naruto tried his level best to stop the hot tears.

"C'mon lets go home." Creating a few clones to take Chigusa to the KMA headquarters he started to walk away when the small bundle of fur suddenly jumped on to Chachamaru and nuzzled her as well.

Naruto smiled as he saw the fox beg for attention from Chachamaru who gently scratched its chin.

As the trio walked away, Eishun faded out of shadows, he had been impressed with the way the blonde dealt with Chigusa, just another reason to satisfy his Father-in-law's request. As he sped to rejoin the group which his substitute was guarding, hopefully before the walking trio did, he mused; _'Interesting…he isn't a half blood although it seems like it. The youki wouldn't have had such an effect in that case. A human with access to demonic energy somehow. The blonde is a contradiction of worlds, Human and Demon, opposing natures in one body….'_

As Naruto and Chachamaru rejoined the group, Naruto explained what had happened while Chachamaru stood at the back, away from where Naruto was fielding questions from everyone while she scratched the fox's head. It seemed to be watching the blonde and the people that surrounded him when it suddenly scrambled from her grip to sit on her shoulders and put a soft paw on her cheek.

"O-ok-okaa-san." A small voice sounded beside her ear.

Her gears skipped another beat and her processors crashed.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto sat on the train beside Negi, the kitsune resting on his lap, at the back of the train while scratching its head. He looked around to make sure Negi, Asuna and anyone else wouldn't overhear before lifting the tiny kitsune up by the scruff of its neck so they were face to face and quietly whispered to the small lump of fur. "What did you do to Chachamaru-san? She fainted!"

He got no reply other than a very innocent, '_Who? Me?'_ look and a foxy grin from the small fox before it wriggled out his grip and jumped into his jacket. It didn't take long before he heard small yipping / snoring noises from inside his jacket where he could feel the small warm lump of fur rested.

Sighing at the naughty new addition to his family he leaned back and popped his fedora back on before following the little one's example and going to sleep.

Very soon they would be back to Mahora. Hopefully his first few days with 3-A wasn't an example of how days usually were in Mahora.

"Awwww…. They look so cute," Shizuna sensei cooed at the sight of Negi sleeping in between Asuna and Naruto, "It's just like a father and mother with their child."

"Tch, their just 15 years old Shizuna-sensei," Nitta-sensei reprimanded her.

She pouted.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto blinked.

Then he blinked again.

"Chachamaru-san…. What are you doing in my tent? No, in my futon?"

A tied up Chachamaru stared back, "Ah. I wanted to play with Akako." The small fox perked up hearing the name Chachamaru had given her the day before everyone had separated back to their respective dorms or tents as the case may be. Leaping off Naruto's head, which happened to be her bed, she landed on Chachamaru's shoulder and nuzzled the green haired gynoid.

Naruto sighed before untying the gynoid.

"Are you angry?"

Surprised at the sudden question, "No, no, I'm not angry, just rather surprised."

The gynoid sat up, wearing a traditional housewife kimono, "I see. I will take care of Akako today. What are your plans?"

Naruto scratched his head, "I need to speak to the Dean about something. After that, I'm not sure, I might probably check up on Negi. Akako can stay with you today; I'll pick her up in the evening."

Akako yipped in happiness before leaping across the gap to lick Naruto's cheek and leaping back to her spot on Chachamaru's shoulder.

"Very well, I hope you have a good day."

Naruto stared at her.

She stared back, "Yes?"

"Um…. I need to change?"

She didn't move.

"I can't change with you watching?"

"Ah."

******Broken Faith******

After his very interesting wake up call, Naruto strolled to the main Academy building to meet up with the dean. Partly because he wanted to ask about the Mahora seal, he couldn't afford another break down like the one he had before fighting Fate, and to see if he could do something about the tree limiting his chakra and partly because he wanted to give Eishun's reply to the Dean's request.

Knocking on the mahogany double doors he heard a weary voice tell him to come in.

Naruto quirked one eyebrow at the scene that greeted him, the Dean was lying face down on a futon with some contraption keeping a hot water bag on to his back, "What's up with you old man? Old age catching up to you?" the blonde said with a smirk.

"Humph, I don't want to hear that from you considering you're theoretically older than me! Anyway this is because my hand had so many cramps from signing release papers for Evangeline every 5 seconds."

The blonde smiled before kneeling next to the old before asking curiously, "Why would you be doing something like that?"

"We weren't able to find a way to completely allow Evangeline to come help you, the best we could do was a loophole that required me to sign papers every 5 seconds with the changes in the seals matrix, even then, it was severely restricted…."

The blonde waved the old man's concerns away, "We got through and everyone came back safe, that's all that matters. Anyway I came to speak to you exactly about the matrix. I can't afford another slip up like that, so I want to look at the matrix's schematics to see if I can find a way to regain all my abilities permanently, or even temporarily that doesn't involve me first experiencing incredible pain or you crapping out like this again."

The old man grumbled, "As long as it doesn't involve paperwork I'm all for it. I did enough paperwork in that one day to last me a life time."

Naruto chuckled, "What about Evangeline? I don't know her back story but she can't be happy being stuck here. Best case scenario; any changes I do might completely release both of us, but I'm not sure whether you would like that since the lengths everyone went through to keep her sealed here gives me the impression not many people like her."

Konoe adopted a serious expression, "I see…. In return for the schematics I ask that you find any way possible to regain your strength, but I would prefer it if her containment here was unchanged, if it comes to it, you might have settle for your current abilities because I can't risk Evangeline being even partially released without a guarantee of her good behaviour."

"I see… very well I agree to your terms. I'll need the schematics along with any references you might have of modern day ward building."

The dean agreed, a more powerful ally was always appreciated, especially if it came at no cost, "The seal schematics are in my drawer, I haven't had the chance to put them back in the vault yet, any books you may need can be found at Evangeline's home. She has been trying to learn about seals ever since she was sealed here, so I don't doubt she has gathered a very comprehensive library of them, more so than anywhere else you may find in this campus. Just let her know you're finding a way to release both of you and she'll let you take a look."

Unseen by the Dean, Naruto winced and made a face, telling the tiny blonde vampire that, even when it won't happen came too close to hitting home. It was painfully similar to the way he had been manipulated by Konoha as well. But he didn't begrudge the Dean. Leaders sometimes had to make the most painful sacrifices. He knew that much from the memoirs of the Third Hokage that he had been able to sneak away from the Hokage vault.

There was a reason he didn't hate the Sandaime even with what Kakashi said. Simply because he knew better. It was true that the man had allowed the occasional beating as well as the low level brain washing by being the one benevolent person Naruto had to depend on. In his memoirs, the Sandaime wrote that it was something that killed his soul a little bit everytime he had to visit a beaten Naruto in the hospital and slowly ate away at his vitality.

Naruto remembered that he had almost rampaged across Konoha after he had read the Sandaime's confession in his memoirs and he gave thanks everyday that Akane, who was far more mature then he was at the time, had noticed something he didn't in the Sandaime's memoirs and reined his anger in.

Why?

What Naruto hadn't realized and Akane did was that all it truly came down to was a choice between what he suffered as a childhood being forced into Danzo's Root forces or even worse as impossible as that sounded. Faced by pressure from all sides to guarantee loyalty from their Jinchuriki through any number of methods, some even made mention about branding him with the Hyuga's caged Bird Seal, the Sandaime took the least evil path that would still allow Naruto a degree of freedom even if he had to be beaten and scorned for it.

Later on, a clear minded Naruto concurred, faced with either complete slavery, being a faceless, emotionless weapon or a bad childhood, he'd take the latter any day.

Even through the various contraints placed on him, the Sandaime did his best, he may have been forced to guarantee loyalty from Naruto and allow the travesty the boy suffered, but in his own way, he rebelled against the Council. Instead of indoctrinating Naruto to Konoha and its rulers, in the midst of stories of greatness of Konoha; he slipped in gems of wisdom and honor, unknowingly forming the very principles that Naruto would forever live by as well as stories of his Will of Fire.

At the very least there would be one last person to inherit his flames.

Although Naruto had to admit it took a while before he matured enough to realize what Akane did earlier; that the Sandaime hadn't been completely screwing him over and that the old man had genuinely cared for him.

Still he didn't have to like it.

Making a quick copy of the seal schematics he waved at the relaxing Dean before leaping out of the window towards where Chachamaru had mentioned her residence was.

******Broken Faith******

Evangeline sat at the table, watching the blonde opposite her accept a hot cup of tea from her attendant before sipping it slowly. This was the first time she had the chance to properly observe the blonde in person. Her gynoid had already given her a preliminary report on him, ranging from his attendance at her fight with Negi and his demonic heritage.

The only thing she had seen to confirm that last observation was his display during the fight with the Kishin and she could still barely believe it. The reason for that, as much as she hated to admit her failings, from what she could sense, and she was one of the best at sensing, he was completely human. There wasn't even a hint of demonic underlay in his energy signature.

The blonde was an complete puzzle, from his demonic abilities to his unnatural similarity to Nagi Springfield as was his request to be granted to access to her library about seals.

She took a moment to glance away from the blonde at the tiny fox that was apparently his and Chachamaru's according to the gynoid herself, as weird as that statement was. It was currently somehow subverting Chachazero. From the get go, they were incredible friends and the fox somehow understood what Chachazero was saying and her doll somehow understood the fox's yips. At the moment Chachazero was describing her bloody achievements to a very fascinated kitsune.

She looked back at the blonde and was unnerved to see two sapphire serious blue eyes that pierced her the way Nagi's once did. He was getting more and more similar to that idiot every time she looked at him.

Composing herself, the vampire spoke, "You want access to my records and library about seals? And why should I let a stranger like you into my personal library?"

The answer was as unexpected as his stare was unnerving, "Because I can find a way to free you from the seal, or at the very least, allow you a modicum of your powers back."

Evangeline spluttered for a few moments, "A-and what do you think _you_ can do? I'm over 700 years old with great experience with magic, I have been studying seals for nearly 15 years and all I could do was that stupid loophole the Dean used, even then I still needed his help. What can you, a 15 year old hope to do what I couldn't?"

He silently stared at her and Evangeline suddenly felt the urge to squirm in her chair. Quashing the urge ruthlessly, the great Maga Nosferatu squirming because of some boy, what a joke, she returned the stare measure for measure.

They stayed that way for a few moments before he nodded in something resembling satisfaction, "Your insult aside, I take it the Dean neglected to tell you what I am exactly?"

"Huh? You're just a 15 year old brat, what is there to tell?"

She regretted that statement since in her current state, she was no better than a normal weak 10 year old.

His blue eyes flashed purple before she was crushed by a tidal wave of Killing intent, struggling to even prop herself up with her arms on the table, she glanced at the side and noted that even Chachamaru had crashed to the floor because of the gynoid's proximity to her. The only beings that didn't seem affected were the small kitsune that seemed to be watching her, which she only now noticed, had glowing red eyes, and her doll Chachazero which seemed to have been spared because she was the kitsune's friend.

The blonde casually sipped his tea like he was merely taking a stroll, observing the struggling vampire with those unnatural purple eyes. Placing the cup of tea back on the table, he let up on his Killing Intent, causing the vampire to slump back into her chair and almost let out a breath of relief. "You may be 700 years old and some super powerful evil mage that is able to kill me in your fully released state, but make no mistake, I'm no posturing heroic idiot, I grew up an assassin of the shadows and given a reason; I _WILL_ **decimate** you before you have that chance. Anyway you didn't know the situation, so I'll let that insult slide. But in case that didn't get your attention, I do not appreciate being insulted by a stranger,"

Evangeline winced at the decimate barb, Ok, so he wasn't entirely like Nagi, this blonde was far more cold and ruthless than that idiot. It almost made her sigh in relief the boy wasn't some blood relation.

The blonde took a breath before continuing, "Our dick waving contest aside, what the Dean didn't let you know was that like you, I was sealed, more precisely into the World Tree itself and only recently awakened and although it was an unfortunate side effect of the seal's mixing, I like you, also cannot comfortably leave the border's of Mahora Academy without some sort of back lash. Except in my case, it is a severely limiting of my abilities, even more than it already is at the moment."

Evangeline's eyes widened, "So that's what the old geezer meant when he said the seal matrix was recently changed, he was talking about your release!"

Naruto nodded, "Hence my agreement to work for the Dean while I find a way to…. circumvent our mutual inconvenience. He has agreed to let me look at the Seal schematics and told me that the most comprehensive collection of knowledge about modern day seals belongs to you. Of course I don't expect to borrow your library without any benefits to you, if I can wing it, I'll try to reduce the restrictions the seals impose on you."

Evangeline looked at the blonde in shock, "Y-you can do that? I tr-tried for years but could barely do anything!"

At this the blonde looked sheepish, "I was rather famous before I was sealed for my expertise in seals, especially when it dealt with seals related to restrainment, time and space. I do not expect to find a solution immediately and will most likely have to familiarise myself with modern day sealing knowledge, but this is a good a place to start as any."

Evangeline's mouth silently opened and closed; a glimmer of hope appaered in her eyes. That glimmer dropped a dead weight in Naruto's stomach at the lies he was feeding her.

Sighing in resignation, he decided that he wasn't about subject her to false hope; staring at her again he spoke, "I'll be completely honest with you. One condition to borrowing the seals schematic was ensuring that you weren't completely released, and in the event that releasing myself would release yourself as well I will have to simply suffer along with you."

The blonde vampire's jaw dropped before she started raving about evil old idiots.

"Silence."

Her jaw clicked shut and she stared in shock again at the blonde that had somehow commanded her to shut up.

"Look at it from his point of view. You are almost certain to extract your pound of flesh in revenge for being sealed for so long if you are fully released, as a Leader he cannot take that risk because he is responsible for the safety of every individual here. Can you guarantee you won't start killing again?"

Shamefully Evangeline shook her head.

The blonde silently watched the dejected vampire before sighing, curse his inability to see a suffering female without doing something about it, "I'll make you a deal, like I said earlier, even if the Dean doesn't like it, I'll find a way to reduce the restrictions imposed on you as long as the Dean doesn't find out about it, except in the most dire circumstances. The exact degree in reduction will have to wait until I can fully see and understand the schematics. Agreed?"

Evangeline looked up with new hope before schooling herself, "Very well, it's a deal." She said in a regal manner. They shook hands before she ordered Chachamaru to take the blonde to her private library.

Naruto smiled before giving Akako an affectionate pat on the head before following a stoic Chachamaru to the back of the cottage.

They walked through a dark corridor before arriving at two big wooden doors that were inlaid with security seals. Releasing them, the gynoid led the blonde into a brightly lit room that was unnaturally large for the small wooden cottage that Naruto had earlier entered.

"This is the library, everything you need is here." The gynoid stiffly said before turning around to leave.

Naruto sighed; the new coldness from the gynoid was not entirely unexpected; he had just threatened what amounted to her mother after all.

Walking behind the leaving gynoid he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in the nape of her back.

"I'm sorry about threatening your Master, I know how precious she is to you, but I needed the knowledge she had. I wasn't lying earlier; I really will try my best to help her, if not for your Master, then as an apology for causing you distress." He softly whispered.

Chachamaru stiffened as arms went around her waist, preventing her from leaving. Earlier while watching the blonde that she had classed as, if not a friend then almost certainly a good acquaintance, threaten her Master. The heat in her chest that developed at his audacity had none soft or gentle vibrations she had come to associate with the blonde's actions. It had taken all she had to restrain herself from throwing something at the person who seemed to be antagonizing her Master, even if it hurt her gears for some reason.

And now with his arms around her waist the gears in her chassis developed the familiar soft vibrations again and she suddenly had the urge to melt into the warmth that enveloped her cold synthetic body, despite her CPU railing against their actions, reminding them of what the blonde just did.

The arms left her waist as did the hot breath that played around her neck. She felt strangely conflicted but kept quiet and simply nodded before walking out. Or at least tried to walk out. Her knee joints wouldn't cooperate for some reason.

******Broken Faith******

A blonde sat at a table littered with a large amount of books and piles of papers, two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to relax and assimilate everything he had learned. 30 clones had sat among the shelves not too long ago reading every book that could be read here.

A rustling sound brought him back to reality as he opened an eye to see the blonde vampire take a seat opposite him and idly move a finger around to see what he was working with.

Naruto smirked and leered at her, "Lick your feet? I didn't know you had such a fetish, though now that I think about it; it's to be expected isn't it? After all, living for so long, one almost certainly would have developed some kind of weird kinkiness to deal with everything eh?"

Evangeline blushed brightly. "Wh-wh-wha are you talking about! You heard!"

Naruto scoffed, "It's not like you were keeping it quiet out there, but now that I know your kinky fetishes, I'm even more worried for my safety, I bet after I tied you up that day in Kyoto, you really enjoyed it, didn't you? You won't sneak into my bed and kidnap me so I can keep tying you up right? Evaaa-chan~ " Naruto drawled as he leered at her again.

Evangeline's blush burned even brighter, silently seething because her throat seemed to have shut down in the face of his teasing.

Naruto gave a smug smirk at the Evangeline whose mouth kept opening and closing without any noise and turned back to the papers and calculations in front of him.

Silence reigned, partly because the vampire still couldn't speak and partly because the ninja was focusing on other matters.

Evangeline finally decided to shut her mouth since no noise would come out no matter what she did and silently seethed until she composed herself.

When she spoke again, it was strangely soft causing Naruto to look up from his work in surprise, "Why did you make that deal? Despite what you said to Chachamaru, if you hadn't said anything about the Dean I wouldn't have known and would have just granted you access to what you needed without any extra trouble or work."

She was pierced by that really unnerving stare that was starting to make her squirm again as she watched the blonde seem to contemplate something.

"From what I have seen of your attitude, the way you act around others, the power you wield, and the fear you inspire in others, namely Eishun-san, it was enough for me to guess that you didn't have the best experience growing up, and until recently you were hunted and hated because no one bothered to listen to your side of the story, weren't you?"

Speechless again, not because he had deduced that she was feared and hated, but because he realized that in part, her legend was due to no one really bothering to talk to her and understand her motives, Evangeline shakily nodded, causing her male counterpart to nod in satisfaction, "I knew someone like you once. She was a true demon, something you call _Akuma _nowadays, hated and feared just because she was a demon. Because of certain circumstances, without her own free will, the power she wielded was used to attack my hometown. In retaliation the leader of my home sealed her. For 15 years, like you, she was sealed, but unlike you she was sealed into a small dark cage, not being able to even feel the sunshine on her face or feel the autumn breeze that she loved around her again. Her only companion was me."

She hadn't exactly told him, but he had noticed it himself that whenever she lazed about in the artificial sunshine and breeze of his soulscape, she was always more mellow than usual.

A soft and sad smile that intrigued Evangeline appeared on the talking blonde's face as he reminisced. At the time he did this, Akane had been teaching him the shinobi arts for nearly two years when Jiraiya wasn't around, but hadn't seen fit to show him her humanoid form yet, "It took a lot of effort but I was finally able to partially release her so she could walk in the sun once again, but regrettably it was only was an illusion of freedom because she would never be able to truly leave her cage. Despite that, she never faltered, and enjoyed whatever she had been given. She asked me after that why I did what I did despite her fearsome reputation. I told her I did it because she had become my truest companion. That I did it because I knew the soft, passionate person that hid behind that arrogant fearsome mask she displayed to the world and that alone mattered more to me than some stupid hearsay from some insignificant human."

The blonde pinned her with another one of his trademark penetrating stares, "The circumstances may differ, but like her, I don't truly believe that you deserve this prison, I might not be able to truly free you, but like her, I can at least try to grant you some peace of mind."

Although he had to admit, the reason partially releasing Akane was so easy was because the seal on his stomach had a lot to do with his free will rather than his abilities at sealing which were solely directed at releasing her at the time. He hadn't bothered to expand his knowledge in the sealing arts until _after _her death, partly because he needed more abilities and partly because the sword currently resting in a seal on his back only worked in a set of unique circumstances. At any other time it was nothing more than a normal albeit unnaturally large claymore. So doing the same for the vampire was likely going to be exponentially more difficult.

Evangeline shakily stumbled out of the library with a lot on her mind but before she did she left a few words, "I know I have no right to say this especially with the way I act, but, pl-ple," Evangeline grimaced and forced herself to say it, "P-please don't hurt Chachamaru." She squared her shoulders, "Even if you out power me now, if you do, I'll do whatever I can to come back and kill you."

Their eyes connected.

"I don't plan to."

******Broken Faith******

Naruto yawned as he walked beside Negi, Asuna and Konoka to his first day of middle school. He had stayed up till late in Evangeline's cottage, and had in fact fallen asleep there, in a guest room. Akako who was currently napping in a nest she had made at the top of his head had been overjoyed that she could spend the night with her new friend.

He didn't know how to feel about that. He had noticed the Doll teaching her how to sharpen her nails for maximum blood spilling with the same block of whetstone that the small Doll used. The kitsune had then scampered up to him and proudly displayed her new nails. He had face palmed and muttered, "That's it, no more Red Bull for you little missy." before picking her up by the scruff of her neck and dragging the protesting lump of fur to bed.

Evangeline on the other hand had stayed out of his way for the remainder of the day and he hadn't seen her since.

He sighed quietly as he walked, there was something wrong with the schematics, not to mention he had to do some leg work back and forth from the tree to update the schematics he had been given.

"Naruto-nii san you ok? You look pretty tired."

He casually waved aside Negi's concern, "Just catching up with some work. Speaking of work, what exactly do we do in class anyway?"

"What do you mean blondie, you've been to class before right?" Asuna asked curiously.

"Eh…. Well where I come from, classes consisted of how to throw metal disks to cause the maximum amount of pain, how to dismantle the human body with the least amount of effort and how to lick our leader's asses."

He was always rather sarcastic in the morning. Especially if he was tired, he blamed it on Akane's influence.

He noticed the other two had stopped walking and were staring at him incredulously, causing him to chuckle sheepishly, "I was just joking. Speaking of dismantling the human body isn't that Ku- err… Ku something, dismantling a lot of people's bodies?"

The three of them spun to see Ku Fei the resident Chinese martial artist fight against an impressive amount of thuggish looking people that were surrounding her.

Kaede joined them from behind, "Ku Fei will be sad you didn't remember her name Namikaze-san."

Naruto shrugged, "I wasn't introduced to her, so you can't blame me for not remembering her."

"Indeed. Anyway, Ku Fei down there is the winner of our annual Academy Martial Arts Contest. So she regularly gets challengers everyday de-gozaru."

"Heh, interesting." Naruto just said as they both watched Ku Fei approach their group and greet Negi.

Kaede smirked, "Just interesting? You must be a very experienced fighter Namikaze-san. Might I ask fo-"

They were both interrupted by a tall spiky haired person that screamed as he charged at Ku Fei from behind the group using them as a distraction for an opening.

Only to run straight into a wall. Or rather into a single finger poking his forehead and seemed to hold him back without any effort. "Tch, I really hate loud noises in the morning and your loud shouting woke my pet." The finger belonged to a certain rather irritated blonde that hadn't had enough sleep and true to his words; a small fox on top of his head yawned cutely and snuffled around his hair as it awoke. "Next time I hear your ignorant shouting I won't stop at just this as your punishment."

"Wha-" before he could say anything else the blonde finger flicked his forehead. The large Karate club member flew back and slammed into a wall hard enough to leave a cracked imprint.

Casually Naruto petted the fox on his head which purred before going back to sleep again before continuing his walk to class, leaving a stunned Negi, a blushing Ku Fei and a calculative Kaede who walked faster to catch up to him.

"Anyway, as I was saying, since you seem so strong, would you mind a spar with me?"

Naruto shrugged, "I'm busy with a project at the moment, so I'll let you know when I'm free." He smirked at the narrow eyes girl, "Oh and I don't mind if you bring your heterosexual life partner along, you know, the one that you sent to dig information on me."

Kaede blushed at her manipulation in Kyoto being found out so easily before excusing herself.

Naruto chuckled before waving at the still stunned Negi, "Oi, you're all going to be late for class if you just stand there you know."

Negi paled and rushed to join them before poking his fingers together shyly, "An-ano…nii-san. Can you teach me how to fight? You were so powerful back in Kyoto and just now you held that big guy back with just a finger."

Naruto dug in his ear, "Eh…. I don't exactly have a style to teach you. The way I fight is more like a bag of tricks. I pick little things and techniques from here and there and mash it all together from experience and tricking my opponent into falling into a trap to land a critical hit, sometimes even at the cost of my own health so to speak. That's not something I can teach you per say, rather something gained through a creative mind and experience." Negi's shoulders slumped in disappointment, something the blonde noticed before he smiled and ruffled the smaller boy's hair.

"Chill, I didn't say I can't do anything, what you need right now before I can teach you anything is a structured foundation and training to build a stronger body, I'm just not suited to lead you through that. _'Because you don't have super regenerative abilities or the time to allow you the same margin of error I did before I became skilled enough to avoid impaling myself,' _although the blonde didn't voice that comment, "After that I can add some stuff to mix it up so that you aren't so dependent on one style. I'd recommend Ku-something, her style is a reactive and balanced one that emphasizes maximum results for minimum input, so it should suit you pretty well since most of your power will be directed towards spells rather than physically dealing damage. Once you have the basics down, I can give you some battlefield training to think on the spot."

Negi beamed at his Nii san.

******Broken Faith******

"I think this will be on the test, so don't forget to revise this at home, well that's it for today" Negi said as he ended his class.

The class all stood up to bow him out when everyone sweat dropped.

One person hadn't stood up and that one person was currently sitting at the very back of the class, face down and drooling onto his table. Similarly he had a fox drooling onto his blonde hair.

Ayaka the class president fumed and stomped to the blonde before gently picking up the sleeping fur ball before landing a fist onto a patch of blonde hair.

"RAMEN!" the blonde shouted before dazedly looking around.

Ayaka's face burned in indignant fury, "Wake up you idiot, we have to bow Negi-sensei out! It's bad enough you were snoring throughout class! How can you not listen to our wonderful Negi-sensei!"

The class president received a blank look and a dazed, "Oh… ok…. Wait... why are we bowing to an onion by the way?"

Chao face palmed, thanking whatever Kami that governed the world she didn't inherit that particular gene from Naruto-jiji, while Negi blushed embarrassedly at the front of class.

"Ii-Incho, it's ok. It's no fuss. By the way, Ku Fei, I need to speak to you about something…. But….um…. uh, I shouldn't say this in class." He muttered under his breath before continuing, "Can you wait for me at the memorial in the plaza in front of the World Tree after class?"

Naruto was completely forgotten in favour of the newest gossip about Negi-sensei while Akako quietly squirmed out of the loud blonde's grip and scampered to the gynoid. Nuzzling Chachamaru, she licked the gynoid's cheek before settling back to sleep on her shoulder.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto sat in class with a frown on his face with a bunch of papers littering his desk.

Who knew middle school math was so hard.

"Hey Naruto, you wanna go for Karaoke and bowling?"

He stared blankly at Konoka who was the one to speak, "What's that? Something to eat?"

All three girls sweat dropped. Even Setsuna, who while hadn't experienced any of those herself, at least knew what they were.

Konoka stood in front of Naruto, hands on her hips, something about the pose caused Naruto to shiver. It foretold future pain to his family jewels but he didn't know why. "You don't know what those are? Even Se-chan knows. That's it your coming with us so both you and Se-chan can relax a bit," she grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled him out of his chair,

"Eh? Bu-but I have work to do!"

"No buts. You're coming." Then she stopped and spun around to shoot him with her big teary eyes and trembling, pouting lips, "You don't want to come? It's because you think I'm annoying right? You don't like me?"

Naruto did what Negi did. He crumpled like a wet towel. "Alright alright, I'll come; just let me pack my stuff."

Konoka smiled triumphantly while Naruto saw a sympathizing expression on Setsuna's face. She had apparently been a recent victim of the same thing.

******Broken Faith******

He stared dubiously at the thing in his hand, then he stared at a waiting Konoka.

"So, I'm supposed to throw this," he gestured at the bowling ball in his hands, "at that and knock all of them down?" this time he gestured at the bowling pins down the bowling alley.

Konoka nodded impatiently.

"O…k…."

Shrugging he threw the bowling ball and watched as it sailed through the air and crashed on top of the pins, destroying most of them and leaving a deep imprint where the ball landed.

"Like that?"

Konoka face palmed.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto watched as Konoka demonstrated a beginner's bowling stance and gently rolled the ball down the lane to knock down a few pins.

Her hands to her hips, she spun to face Naruto, "Like that, your aim is to knock down all the pins!"

Naruto took the same pose she did.

Konoka brightened.

Naruto stepped forward and let the ball rip.

The ball shot forward like a bullet and left an inch deep rut straight down the middle of the lane from the force it had been thrown with before destroying the pins, crashing deep inside the machinery and was stuck into the wall.

Konoka face palmed again.

Behind her the bowling alley's owner cried bitter tears.

Asuna shrugged, "At least it was a strike." She said as she watched Ayaka chase Ku Fei around with a bowling ball

Naruto scratched the back of his head, what was he doing wrong? Wasn't this the same as throwing Kunai to hit a target? He even destroyed the target rather than knock it down, that got him bonus points right? Right?

******Broken Faith******

After a tiring day at school, bowling and karaoke, everyone in class discovered he absolutely sucked at singing and following the words on the screen. He didn't mind, he preferred making music that suited his own beat rather than following a predetermined beat. He didn't have any energy left to continue studying the seals and chose to go to sleep.

Climbing into his futon, he petted Akako and gave her head a good night kiss; she returned it with a lick to his cheek before they fell asleep.

**Play Fields of Hope by Rie Tanaka**

Hours later a dark figure unzipped the opening to his tent and slipped in.

Her lips raised in a quiet quirk as she watched the blonde and his pseudo daughter sleeping. Both of them had thrown off the covers and both of them were asleep on their backs, limps splayed out. One was quietly snoring, the other was quietly yipping.

She smiled quietly at the adorable scene. Akako was unknowingly imitating her pseudo Father.

She quietly knelt beside the small fox and gently rubbed her small white tummy. Adding purrs to the symphony of snoring.

Smiling at the cute purring, the green haired intruder slipped into the futon, between Akako and Naruto.

Almost on impulse, Naruto's strong arms wrapped around her waist and he nuzzled her neck again. He had a weird fascination with girl's necks she noticed. Letting out a quiet sigh, she relaxed enjoyed the warmth that surrounded her, so much like the feeling she had while her Master charged her. She hadn't been lying to him that morning, she really had come in to play with Akako; she just neglected mention _when _she came in. And then she had heard her Master talk to him about her.

His response only made her gears spin faster as did her Master's hidden concern for her.

She was honest enough to admit that the reason she had been doing this was for the warmth that Naruto seemed to emit especially when he was asleep. It gave her a sense of life. Even if it was false.

It didn't make any sense to lie to herself, especially against all her processor's logic but she couldn't help it.

His warmth was unlike any other.

_**konna ni tsumetai tobari no fukaku de**_

_**anata wa hitori de nemutteru**_

The heat from him resonated with the warmth inside her as her gears sped up like it usually did.

Like she wasn't just another soulless puppet.

It allowed her to pretend like she was just another normal person.

That it was possible to have a normal life instead of being just a lonely android.

Quietly she also noted that Naruto no longer tied her up whenever she slipped in like this.

Akako stirred and noticed her pseudo mother had come in as she had been doing the past 3 days, stumbling towards the green haired intruder the tiny lump of fur licked her cheek, and with a quiet "Oyasumi Kaa-san," the kitsune splayed herself on top of her mother and father before falling back asleep.

_**inori no utagoe sabishii nohara wo**_

_**chiisa na hikari ga terashiteta**_

A slight line of fluid leaked out one eye as she smiled sadly and petted the kitsune's head before she rested her head on one of Naruto's biceps and snuggled back into his warm embrace.

_**natsukashiku mada tooku**_

_**sore wa mirai no yakusoku**_

Soon the gynoid was asleep, dreaming of quiet green fields.

_**inori no utagoe sabishii nohara wo**_

_**chiisa na hikari ga terashiteta**_

Hoping to soak as much warmth as she could before the day begun again and she had leave this sanctuary.

_**umarete kita hi ni dakishimete kureta**_

_**yasashii ano te wo sagashiteru**_

_**inori no utagoe hitotsu kiete mata hajimaru**_

_**tayorinaku setsunaku tsuzuku**_

Neither of them noticed the small smile playing on Naruto's lips.

_**anata no yume wo miteta**_

_**kodomo no you ni waratteta**_

_**natsukashiku mada tooku**_

_**sore wa mirai no yakusoku**_

******Broken Faith******

**Nothing much to say, just that this is one of two, Christmas Specials I plan on releasing on the 25th of December.**

**That family scene was heart warming I hope. I tried my best, something for those without a family. It won't replace that special feeling but I hope this helps.**

_**konna ni tsumetai tobari no fukaku de**_- Beneath a veil so cold

**anata wa hitori de nemutteru** - You deeply sleep, all alone

**inori no utagoe sabishii nohara wo**- The melody of prayer; on the lonely fields

**chiisa na hikari ga terashiteta** - a little light shined

**natsukashiku mada tooku**_ - _So dear, and yet so far

**sore wa mirai no yakusoku**_ - _That is the promise of our future

**umarete kita hi ni dakishimete kureta**_ - _On the day we were born, we were embraced

**yasashii ano te wo sagashiteru**_ - _And now we search for those gentle hands again

**inori no utagoe hitotsu kiete mata hajimaru**_ - _The melody of prayer; one vanishes

**tayorinaku setsunaku tsuzuku**_ - _And all begins again; a powerless, painful continuation

**anata no yume wo miteta**_ - _I watched as you dreamed

**kodomo no you ni waratteta**_ - _You laughed like a child

**natsukashiku mada tooku**_ - _So dear, and yet so far

**sore wa mirai no yakusoku**_ - _That is the promise of our future

**And yes. That Chachamaru scene was familiar wasn't it? I planned for Asuna and Chachamaru to be introduced that way long before this story was to be published. The only difference was the actual fine tuning during the writing since they were done some time ago. I wanted it as an introduction as the heads of the family so to speak. Asuna's brash but straight forward sincerity tempered by Chachamaru's cool logic. Both backed by one insanely powerful powerhouse that actually knows what his doing. Now that the secret is out, i'm sure the many people that have been bugging me about the pairings are satisfied. It MAY be a harem, but these two are definitely in.**

**Oh, and there was actually supposed to be a third girl that I wanted to be introduced that way. The slot is still up in the air cause I have no idea which girl would give me the best impact so I'm still thinking. Bwahahah.**

**Have a very Merry Christmas.**

**John.**


	11. Ninja in Middle School 2

**Broken Faith 11**

**School Life. Very Hard Apparently.**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto as much as his screwing it up nowadays anyway, Negima belongs to Akamatsu Ken. **

**AN : I'm rather disappointed, only 4 reviews since chapter 10 went up. *mopes in a corner* luckily for you, i'm not as mean as my brother, who told me to delay the release until i get more reviews. of course he would say that, he already read the rough draft next 4 chapters. Anyway ~**

**Part 2 of 3 of my Christmas Special back to back release. Enjoy.**

**Soundtrack List**

**Us Against the World - **Westlife

******Broken Faith******

Naruto woke up just short of daybreak, his usual time for most days. Glancing down at the contents of his arms he smiled softly.

Chachamaru was cuddling Akako while they were both enveloped in his arms.

Slowly extracting himself so he didn't wake either of them, he placed a gentle kiss on Chachamaru's cheek and Akako's head before gathering his stuff and walking out to get the day started, once he had cleaned up he left a note for the gynoid just in case she woke up before he got back.

He took a deep breath and stretched when he heard a small yip and a slight weight settled on top of his head.

Looking up he saw a yawning Akako, "You wanna come exercise with Otou-san?"

Getting an affirmative yip in reply, he cricked his neck, "Alright, hold on tight, Akako." feeling the small paws and nails dig deeper into his hair; he started a fast paced sprint around the Academy while wearing a bucket load of weights.

Akako yipped in happiness as she almost flew.

Anybody watching would have been forgiven for thinking they were dreaming. A tall blonde was running as if he was in an athletic track meet with a small red fox dangling from his head like a red flag blowing in the wind.

A few hours of nonstop high speed running later he came upon a strange sight; Negi practicing his kenpo while being cheered on by a small pink haired girl. He couldn't remember the name.

Slowing to a stop, he jumped atop the branches of the World Tree nearby them to cool down while he watched the couple train. Or at least one trained while the other cheered, complete with cheerleader uniform and pom poms.

Soon he noticed another energy signature arrive and he smiled. This promised to be interesting. A trio consisting of a small blonde girl, a tall elegant green haired girl and a puppet riding atop her head; approached the training duo and it seemed some words were exchanged before the taller girl charged forward, easily distracting Negi with a hand swipe to hide a straight forward kick to the abdomen.

The blonde smaller one spoke a few more words before the trio walked towards where he was hidden in the leaves.

All three of them stopped under what was actually his gravestone while the blonde one leaned against the tree.

"You're not going to stop me from forcing that idiot into a fight he cannot win for his apprenticeship?" she seemed to speak to no one before a voice replied.

"It's your business how you decide your apprenticeship isn't it?"Naruto said before leaping down while Akako left his head for Chachamaru's arms with a happy yip, "Besides whether or not he passes is of no concern to me."

Evangeline bristled at his callous words, "But I thought he was close to you! You don't care about his progress?"

Chachamaru would have bristled as well but she knew the taller blonde well enough by now to realize that despite his oft callous and laid back attitude, there was usually a reason for anything he did.

Naruto raised an amused eyebrow, "And exactly why are you being so defensive of him?"

Evangeline spluttered, "I-I'm not! He-I-You're his role model! You're supposed to care!"

He simply shrugged, "If I know him, whether he becomes your apprentice or not doesn't matter. He will still progress. The only difference it will make is the amount of his progress. Of course being apprenticed to you, his growth will probably be a lot faster and structured in a way that _you_ would approve. If he doesn't, he will still progress but not in the way you wanted him to."

Naruto slyly glanced at Evangeline, "Of course that also means that you can't groom him into the perfect sex slave that likes to lick your foot and tie you up."

The taller blonde laughed as Evangeline spluttered impotently and could only growl as she watched the tall blonde walk away to join the duo still on the hill. For some reason the taller blonde could push her buttons like no other and render her speechless every time they spoke. And she had to admit, sexual innuendo aside, she wanted Negi to grow the way she had taught him to.

Negi looked up as he felt his nii san approaching.

"Yo. Negi. Chibi pink haired girl."

"Nii-san!"

"My name is Makie! Ma-Ki-E! I told you that on the bus in Kyoto! Not Chibi Pink haired girl!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Chibi pink haired girl."

Makie fumed and was completely ignored.

The taller blonde sat on the grass beside a dejected Negi.

"You saw me get beaten by Chachamaru-san huh nii san?" Negi said.

"Yeah, so?"

Negi poked his fingers together, "I-I'm still so weak. Even after Ky-" he was interrupted when a fist slammed into his head.

"Of course you're going to get beaten, you haven't even been training in Kenpo for a full day, what the heck do you expect to do against someone like Chachamaru. That's why you're training now isn't it, so someday you can defeat her. And not just her, so some day Fate, no, not just him, so someday you can defeat anybody wanting to hurt your students again."

Negi went stony, "Let's kick ass."

Naruto smirked.

"Alright! I'm gonna help you. Go start doing those Kata you were doing before Evangeline came."

"Hai Nii-san!"

Makie was off to side, crying anime tears at being ignored although she perked up when she heard her newest nickname being called, "Oi, Chibi pink haired girl."

She stomped towards her blonde classmate, "I. Am. Not. Chibi! I am Makie!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever, you want to help Negi right?"

Uncertain at the sudden change in topic she replied, "Ye-yeah?"

"Good, go pick up some stones and throw them at Negi while he practices."

He heard two loud "What!"s coming from the duo. Digging at his ear to clear the ringing he clarified, "Not so loud, it's still early dammit. The reason I asked you to throw stones at Negi is because it will help him increase his focus while he keeps up his attacks as well as his situational awareness. Earlier Chachamaru got him with a simple kick because he let his guard down, he was distracted by her hand causing him to break his combo and all those gave her an opening a mile wide."

Negi's resolve firmed, he hadn't noticed earlier but now that his Nii san mentioned it, he realized the blonde's assessment was on the spot.

Turning to the pink haired gymnast who still looked uncertain he spoke, "Makie-san, please do as Naruto- nii san asked. He was right, I was easily distracted."

"We-well…if you're sure."

As soon as she started throwing stones, he practiced his moves while avoiding the stones as best he could. After a while and a few extra bruises, he was slowly getting used to the stones, able to continue his moves while automatically avoiding the flying obstacles when he suddenly felt something heading at him from behind.

Quickly ducking into another move of the sequence he stared at a knife that had pierced the ground in front of him.

"Nii-san! Are you trying to kill me?"

Naruto stared at him blankly, "You won't die from a small knife like that, besides Chibi Pink throws like a girl, so get back to work."

"I _AM_ a girl!" and was again completely ignored.

"Even if I won't die, that will hurt!"

The blank expression never changed as he continued ignoring a currently hopping mad Makie, "Soooo? More incentive to learn faster isn't it? Besides, if I did that even 10 minutes earlier, you wouldn't have been able to avoid that at all. The best place to learn where to fight is on the battlefield. And I plan to simulate that as close as possible."

Negi stared at the knife in realization, his nii-san was right. Again. Squaring his shoulders he continued his moves.

The blank expression changed into a smirk at the expression on Negi's face before the blonde flicked another even faster knife.

Just because he didn't care whether or not Negi passed didn't mean he couldn't help the kid a little.

"Gwaahh!"

He cursed the day he accepted his Nii-san's offer to help for the rest of the week.

Of course it took that long for the cuts he suffered to heal as well.

******Broken Faith******

**The day of the test**

"Negi Springfield is here for the apprenticeship test!" Negi declared confidently. Well as confident as he could with numerous scratches on his face.

"Heeh, so you actually came. Well then, let's get started, you just have to land one hit on Chachamaru for you to be my apprentice. The match continues until you're dead and you can't attack anymore. "

Negi gave a smirk that was very similar to a certain blonde, "Is that all the conditions?"

The smirk unnerved Evangeline for some reason, "Ye-yes, that's all….. More importantly, what's with the audience!"

Negi laughed sheepishly, "Hahaha…. They just followed me."

All of them cheered for Negi causing the boy to blush sheepishly.

Stepping forward he bowed to Chachamaru who had taken off her skirt to reveal shorts. "Chachamaru-san, I'll be pleased to be your opponent!"

Chachamaru bowed back.

"Let the fight begin!" Evangeline declared.

Chachamaru dashed forward, a hand swipe in the progress while her leg was already lifting for a straight kick only for her hand to be blocked by an elbow while her kick was stopped by another hand. Negi took the chance to head butt the gynoid, causing her eyes to widen before she snapped her head back to avoid the head butt. "Heh, you can't get me with that same move again Chachamaru-san."

The sudden move allowed Negi to slip a leg behind her knee and flick the arm blocking her hand swipe back in an effort to unbalance Chachamaru only for her to completely back flip rather than stumble. She flipped a few steps before gaining purchase and dashing back into the fray.

Evangeline seethed, that head butt move had Naruto written all over it.

As Chachamaru ran forward, Negi suddenly faded from sight with a sudden burst of speed as he appeared underneath the gynoid, already in a handstand, ready to kick Chachamaru into the air, a move reminiscent of the _Kage Buyo_. '_Activate contract for Negi Springfield for 10 seconds.'_

_Listen Negi, that spell you use to boost your abilities. Keep practicing it until you can do it silently. When you invoke it like that, it tells everybody save the blind and deaf and then some that you are about to try something. Don't use it at first, let your opponent believe that you are slow and drop their guard before going in with a burst of combos._

_Hai Nii san._

Chachamaru skidded and jerked her head back to avoid the sudden kick but Negi didn't stop there, his legs spread wide open and he spun in a tornado kick, blocking a kick, Chachamaru snapped a foot out to kick his support out from underneath Negi.

Pushing away from the ground Negi back flipped to find his own purchase.

_Kenpo is a balanced martial art. Its greatest strength and its greatest weakness lies in its dependency on balance and stability. A close second is their ability to use your attacks against you as well as the least amount their own energy for attacks, amplifying it by using the body's economy of motion. A kenpo user with the stable high ground can and will reverse almost any attack you throw at him. Don't lose that advantage._

_Hai Master Ku._

Chachamaru dashed forward before Negi could properly stabilize himself, a literal rocket punch headed for his head, only for Negi to shift his body, allowing the punch to land on a shoulder, using the force from the blow to spin his body in a full rotation that ended with one leg wedged between hers, not allowing her to retreat and an elbow heading for the back of her head. '_Hyakkouken Tenshikoda'_

Chachamaru fell forward, avoiding the elbow as she spun on a handstand, throwing Negi away from her. That was dangerous, she was almost hit. She ran forward again, intent on finishing the match before her teacher got too hurt.

Right as Negi landed, she launched another punch boosted by thrusters, only for Negi to deflect the punch before gripping the outstretched hand and pulling it towards himself with an executing an elbow thrust with his free arm. '_Kakutachouchuu'_

Chachamaru's eyes widened before her processors immediately gave her a path to take, leaping up slightly with her back leg, she followed Negi's pull to throw her completely over his shoulder, avoiding his elbow thrust before landing a direct kick in on Negi's back while she was in mid air.

Negi flew forward, skidding on the ground before lying there motionless. The first direct hit so far.

"Tch, so that's all you got. Wrap it up bouya and go back home."

Negi's students ran forth, worried for him when they noticed his hand twitch. "Negi.."

Said boy, struggled to stand up, "Heh, it's not over yet Evangeline-san. You didn't give me a time limit. You said until I *cough* until I died right?"

"Wha? Don't tell me that… you're already beaten up boy! Go back home and rest!"

"Heh, not yet. Like nii san always said. I don't give up. And I'll keep trying until I land that one punch to force you to accept me as your apprentice. Believe it."

Up in the tree a figure sweat dropped. Of all the things to copy, he had to go and copy that one stupid phrase didn't he?

Negi wasted no time and charged forward at Chachamaru with a straight punch, she side stepped the rash charge before landing an elbow on the back of his neck.

This went on for nearly an hour as all the girls watched Negi get beat for almost an hour. All of them winced whenever a particularly bad hit was landed. it didnt take long for the Negi's cheerleaders to snap.

"I can't take this!" Asuna shouted as she pulled out her pactio, "I'm going to help him!"

Makie stepped in front of her blocking her charge forward. "You can't do that! Even…even if his really badly injured… Negi-sensei tried his hardest to get to this point. You heard him right? He won't give up! I watched him train hard under Ku Fei, everyday that evil Naruto-san throws knives at him and makes him do the most humiliating exercises, like running around the campus naked as fast as possible if he doesn't want anyone to see him! If you help him now, all that effort will be wasted!"

Up in the tree, the shadowed figure planned retribution while a smaller figure beside him yipped in what suspiciously sounded like a snigger.

"But he still won't give up. This is his dream, he wants to get stronger on his own, if you help him, doesn't that mean you are spitting on that dream Asuna-san! Do you want someone helping you seduce Takamachi because they said you are too young and childish for him?"

Up above them the figure sweat dropped again, "I think Chibi pink has been spending too much time around me."

"Maki-chan…You didn't have to go that far!" Asuna cried anime tears.

"Anyway, I can't let you help him. Negi-sensei told me. He has someone to catch up to. Someone he wants to surpass. That every day he felt like he was overshadowed by that broad back of whoever he is trying to catch up to. This is his way of catching up to that person."

The small girl clenched her fist tightly, "Do you know what he said when I asked why he wanted to do this alone? He told me that he trusted you, Setsuna, Naruto, everybody to cover his back when he needed it. I was so jealous, I felt so useless because I couldn't do anything to deserve that same respect he had for you. Negi-sensei knows you will be there to help him but this once. Just this once, He wants to cross this bridge by himself."

Makie took a deep breath, and furiously wiped away the tears from her own admission of uselessness before she shakily spoke, "So…. So… even if I'm useless, even if I don't know how to fight, I'll fight you Asuna-san because I can't let you help him."

A hand landed on Makie's head and ruffled her hair. "Heh, well said Chibi Pink."

The owner of the hand shouted so the tired Negi could hear him, "You heard your girlfriend Negi. Go kick ass."

Negi grimly smiled. His resolved strengthened by the faith Makie showed in him. "You heard her Chachamaru-san, don't go easy on me."

Chachamaru's eye twitched. "I see… Ve-very well…" the gynoid charged forward for a punch.

"_Negi, when all else fails…."_

"_Yes?" Negi asked with big shining eyes in hope for some great secret technique._

"_Do the stupidest thing you can think of."_

"_Nii san….what the hell?"_

Ducking under the punch, Negi latched on the hand like a koala and fired off point blank kicks at Chachamaru. The gynoid flailed her arm like a windmill trying to get him off while trying to stop the point blank attacks until she successfully flung the boy off.

Everyone sweat dropped and Evangeline gnashed her teeth, this totally had Naruto's name all over it. Not bothered her ass.

Shaken but not out, Negi went with the throw, stopping the fall with his hands and flipping before lashing out with a bicycle kick.

Chachamaru's eyes widened and barely managed to lift on hand to block the kick only for that one leg to curl around her arm, Negi gritted his teeth, _Activate contract for Negi Springfield for another 10 seconds. _Using nothing but his abdomen muscles and the leg curled around her arm for leverage, the boy spun on his hands and threw Chachamaru away from him, flipping up again; he ran to the gynoid his hand raised in a fist. Chachamaru tensed for the attack but instead of a fist he suddenly ducked down and skidded in between her legs, right as he passed through he leapt up, intent on doing what he didn't know. As long as it did something.

The back of his head bashed against Chachamaru's metal one.

Everyone stared at the incredibly stupid but for some weird reason effective move.

A shaky thumbs up rose from the currently dazed and face down on the floor Negi, "I hit her."

******Broken Faith******

A depressed Naruto moped in a corner, drawing little circles in the ground, "When I said stupid, I didn't mean…._stupid_….. that- that was so….. embarrassing."

A bandaged Negi sat on his bed and laughed sheepishly as Konoka tended to his wounds.

"I mean come on…. I just told him to do what I did when I was younger. It didn't look that stupid when I did it? Right? Right Akako?" he asked the sniggering kitsune.

Naruto kept on moping until he felt a shadow fall on him. Looking up he saw Asuna with flames of righteousness burning in her eyes, her _harisen_ already in her hand, "So...what's this I hear about you making Negi run around campus naked?"

"Um….mercy?" Naruto squeaked.

"Sorry…all out of mercy…."

A while later Chachamaru arrived to find Negi, Asuna, Konoka and a tenderized lump of flesh.

******Broken Faith******

*Knock knock*

Evangeline opened the door and her eyes widened in surprise. Standing there was a heavily bruised Naruto with two black eyes, Chachamaru and a still sniggering kitsune in her arms.

"Na-naruto? What happened to you?"

"Asuna beat me up after Chibi Pink told them about me training Negi."

"Ohohoho… serves you right for helping the brat even after you told me that you didn't care."

"Meh, I woulda helped him either way."

"Humph, whatever. What are you here for?"

"Decrypting that seal, what else?"

Evangeline let them in, while Chachamaru went to ready some tea, Naruto sat at the table, tenderly touching some of his bruises. "How far have you gotten into the seal?"

"Hmm? Oh, I actually already decrypted the whole thing yesterday."

"What! Then why aren't you doing something about it?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head and frowned, "That's the thing. There are parts missing as a failsafe. That's why neither you nor the Dean could do anything. That you even found a workable loophole is a near miracle. Until I can find the missing parts and update it to the existing seal matrix, I'm stuck. The only clue given was in the last part of the schematics, decrypting it gave me some coordinates of a place somewhere under this school but I don't have any maps of the school in its entirety 15 years ago, so I can't tell the exact location yet and I'm still looking."

"What! Why didn't you tell me earlier? I was so bored years ago that I already mapped out most of the school 15 years ago!" Evangeline demanded angrily.

"Whoa whoa, relax." Naruto held up his hand in surrender, "Even if I find the parts and try my level best, there's no guarantee I can release you, fully or partially. Don't get so excited. If I fail it'll only hurt more."

Evangeline glared at him for a while before taking deep breaths to calm down and a few sips of tea.

"It's probably my fault; I thought everything I needed was in that library so I didn't bother looking any further."

Evangeline rolled her eyes, "Who said I just had _one _library."

"Huh, didn't expect that. Anyway, on to business, where is this map?"

Together the vampire and the shinobi walked to another part of the cottage, into a room full of scrolls. Evangeline pulled a dusty scroll out before unrolling it. "Here, a complete map from 15 years ago."

She watched the blonde bring out a few rulers and mumbling some numbers as he matched the coordinates to the location.

"Here."

She looked at where his finger had landed, at a part where she had never been to before.

"Bu-but that's…"

"At the very bottom of Library Island."

"Let's go now!" she started moving towards the door before a black blur appeared in front of her and finger flicked her forehead.

"Calm down, Evangeline."

She stopped. The blonde had never used her full name before.

"The fact that you never mapped that part tells me it was too dangerous for you 15 years ag-" he tried to say before being cut off by Evangeline.

"But I have Chachamaru now!" Evangeline protested.

"And do you expect her to piggy back you while avoiding whatever is trying to kill you at the same time?" Naruto said with a quirked eyebrow.

Evangeline slumped down dejectedly into a nearby chair.

Naruto sighed, for the so called Queen of Blah Blah Blah, she could really act like a 10 year old at times. Walking over to the blonde he ruffled her hair. "Relax, I said I'd do my best already, and I won't accept anything less from myself. Right now I'll bring Chachamaru down with me; if there isn't anything really dangerous we'll bring you down tomorrow."

He smiled softly at her, "If I can't release you even partially, I'll stay at Mahora with you, how's that?"

Evangeline quietly scoffed, "People have been lying to me for years. It makes no difference no matter what you say."

Naruto heard what she said but he also felt the small quiet hope that Evangeline didn't allow to burn out and the hidden vulnerability. Smiling again, he bent down and planted a soft kiss on her forehead, causing her to look up at him in surprise, "I'm not lying, if I fail, I'll really stay here at Mahora with you, but if I succeed you become my little sister. Deal?"

Evangeline didn't say anything but kept staring at the blonde in shock.

Turning around, he walked out the library, leaving a still stunned Evangeline behind, "Chachamaru! You heard us right?" he asked as the two of them walked out of the cottage.

"Yes."

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you were some kind of voyeur."

"There is no sexual pleasure to be gained from watching you seduce my Master. Please refrain from such comments."

Naruto stopped with a stunned and squicked out expression on his face, mouthing speechlessly, 'Seduce?'

Chachamaru kept walking, hiding a small smile.

"Oi! I'm not a paedophile. You can hear me right? Hey, wait up dammit."

******Broken Faith******

**Later that night**

A dark figure slipped into Naruto's tent again.

She stood there for a while, to watch the sleeping blonde and fox, both again splayed out on their backs and quietly snoring.

Smiling a little as she saw the fox's leg twitch in the air, as though she was chasing something in her dreams if her yips were anything to go by.

The figure slipped into the futon next to Naruto like every night before this one and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you for trying so hard to make Master happy, Naruto…" she whispered quietly before going to sleep.

Until she felt his warm arms envelope her again and a quiet reply, "Everyone deserves a measure of happiness. Even your Master, she's been punished enough already."

Chachamaru gave a tiny smile with a bright red blush.

******Broken Faith******

"Huh…. What in the world are these three idiots doing here?" a tall shadow said as they watched Negi, Nodoka and Yue make their way through the traps which he and Chachamaru avoided yesterday.

"See… that's what you get for making us wait; now these three are here to disturb us." A shorter shadow said.

"Weee...ll, I didn't exactly know how to fight that big lizard, and neither did Chachamaru, so I had to go back and ask for your opinion cause I didn't know what worked and what didn't. And you _still_ insisted on coming even when you know there's a dragon down here." The tall shadow replied.

"Pah, it's just a dragon, just do what you do best and beat it down, you can't use magic so it wouldn't have mattered either way."

The taller shadow sweat dropped, "What do you think I am? A bulldozer?"

"Yes, all muscle and no brain." The shorter one swiftly replied with no hesitation.

"That's mean Eva-chan~ your Onii-san is hurt."

"Tch, just because we made a deal, doesn't mean I'll do it, especially since you haven't fulfilled part of your bargain. Anyway let's hurry and leave these idiots behind."

"Master are you not worried for your sex slave?" a third shadow interrupted the other two.

"Buhah? Cha-chachamaru! What are you saying!"

"Are you not worried for your se-"

"Kyaaah! Don't say something stupid like that!"

"Very well. Are you not worried for your future bed partner?"

A stifled snort came from the tallest shadow.

"Krk…" A strangled choke came from the shortest shadow.

"Eva-chan's speechless. Bwahaha," Naruto wiped the tears of laughter away before standing up, "C'mon, let's go, these idiots are flipping every single trap with each step. I don't want my classmates and teacher to be turned into pancake before tomorrow."

They finally followed the bumbling trio of Negi, Nodoka and Yue until they arrived at the bottom most part of the library and were confronted by the dragon.

Naruto sighed, "Chachamaru could you please go rescue those idiots and your Master's future bed mate?"

"Grrk!"

"But Master?"

"I'll keep her safe, you go ahead."

"Very well."

Once the group had left, the dragon started to chase them. A tall blonde stepped out unnoticed from the shadows and cricked his neck before looking up at the flying dragon, "Mah, mah, I can't let you turn my cute classmates and teacher into roasted pork, so I'll need you to come back down here."

His eyes flashed purple, "Bansho Ten'nin!"

The dragon's eyes widened in surprise as it was completely wrenched out of the air and crash landed.

Roaring in anger and indignation, its snake like head swivelled about looking for the cause of his crash landing, he found a tiny blonde man casually looking up at it, "Huh, I really didn't expect that to work. Although I must admit pulling something as big as you was pretty tiring."

The dragon roared in reply.

"You're not too friendly are you?"

It charged.

"Meh, suits me just fine," forming a few clones to the side they all charged the giant dragon while Evangeline looked on with wild eyes.

The blonde had some weird sort of magic to clone himself out of thin air. Clone magic wasn't rare, but that wasn't the problem, it was the fact that he apparently forgot to tell everyone he could use magic. It was...annoying. Her left eye twitched, she just knew the reason he was suddenly using some weird magic was to simply spite her earlier statement. The blonde was petty like that.

Her left eye twitched again.

If that wasn't insane enough, he and every one of his equally insane copies charged a rampaging dragon that was nearly 7 times taller than him head on."

All of them formed some sort of weird blue balls in both palms of their hands and thrust them at whatever part of the dragon they could reach, "Rasenrengan!"

Evangeline's eyes widened comically as the dragon was thrown back by the glowing orbs that looked tiny in comparison despite their numbers. She spent the next ten minutes watching an insanely laughing blonde and his similarly somehow unlimited cackling copies pound a 5 story tall dragon into the floor with nothing but glowing orbs and the occasional bigger than normal orb.

When he was done, he casually walked back to her, dusting his pants, "Sorry, it's been a while since I got a good fight so I went a little nuts."

"A little? A little?" Evangeline managed to reply in a strangled tone.

The vampire face palmed.

"Oya, oya…. I don't think my kawaii guard dragon deserved that kind of beating do you? He was just doing his job." A sudden voice shocked Evangeline out of her slump and Naruto to tense before both of them spun around to face the owner of the voice that just walked out of the giant gates the dragon was guarding.

Silence reigned for a brief second before being broken by the shortest person present.

She pointed an incredulous finger at the figure, "YOU!"

"Yes. Me." He calmly replied.

It was too much for the poor blonde girl to handle and she fainted.

The two tall men looked at her before the blonde one pointed at her prone body, "She fainted."

"Yes…. I can see that. Would you like to come in for some tea?"

"Sure. You got Japanese tea? I don't like the Western kind."

******Broken Faith******

"Evil Naruto-san!"

Naruto skidded to a stop and felt like banging something. There was only one person with enough balls, or dumb enough depending on your perspective, to call him Evil Naruto-san to his face, he sighed, "What do you need Chibi Pink? I thought you had some sort of monkey dancing thing to do?"

"Its not monkey dancing thing! It's called Rhythmic Gymnastics!"

"Yeah, yeah whatever Chibi Pink, what was so important it couldn't wait till class and you needed to look for me so early in the morning?"

Makie fidgeted in front of the blonde before bowing low, "Please train me!"

Naruto's eyes bugged out, "Train you? In what? Monkey dancing?"

Makie ignored the comment about monkey dancing, gritted her teeth and ploughed on, "I know I'm stupid, and-and sometimes people laugh at me behind my back because I'm not very smart. I know I don't have a noble goal like Negi-sensei or Mana or Ku Fei." Her fist clenched, "But after spending time with Negi-sensei for one week, I realized something. Negi-sensei has something important he needs to do, a place where he needs to go. A place where normal people can't follow. And to achieve that goal he needs to learn how to fight, that's why he tried so hard to be Eva-san's apprentice."

She looked straight into her classmate's blue eyes, "I don't want to be left behind. To be just another normal person. I want to grow strong and help Negi."

Naruto quirked one eyebrow in amusement, this girl was interesting, "You do realize whatever his doing its dangerous right? And he doesn't want to involve you in more danger? Are you sure you want to do something like this, to devote your life to something that may be nothing more than a passing crush? Even against said crush's wishes? To sacrifice your gymnastics because you put Negi in front of that?"

Makie didn't falter. "Yes."

Stupid, young, brash. But honest, straightforward and sincere. Huh, it reminded him of something. Something he stopped seeing in the mirror 1 year ago.

A paw landed on his cheek, and he glanced at his pseudo daughter. She gave him a small yip and a commanding glare. Naruto silently made a note to stop Akako from spending so much time with Chachamaru, Zero and Eva.

Little girls should be dressing up in uber cute kimonos and playing with flowers. Not learning how to sharpen knives and command their father's with a look.

"Sigh, very well. Come with me. Let's see how far that resolve can take you."

Makie's face brightened, "Hai, Evil Naruto-sensei!"

Face palming Naruto reckoned this was how Jiraiya felt every time he talked to his mentor. He wondered how the old pervert dealt with it, and whether the Toad Sage felt like strangling something too. He just knew somewhere up in Heaven there was a white haired pervert laughing at him.

******Broken Faith******

"Enough, you can rest now. I'll see you again tomorrow at the same time. Oh and before I forget, there will be another person joining us for training."

Makie collapsed, "Ev-evil…" she managed to wheeze out.

Naruto smirked at her, "Well, you did ask for it."

His smirk changed into a genuine smile, "But you did well for your first day. You kept in top shape through your gymnastic training and your body is highly flexible and you know how to instinctively keep your centre in most situations. We already have a good foundation to build on. Give it a few months and you'll be able to beat even Negi in a straight up fight if you keep this up."

"H-hai, Evil Na-naruto-sensei."

Cue sweat drop, "You're never going to drop that first word are you?"

"No-nope."

"Tch, whatever Chibi Pink, I'm got something to do. See you here same time tomorrow, don't be late for class."

Naruto left a panting Makie that was still sprawled out on the ground as he strolled away from the field they were using towards Evangeline's home.

**Play Us Against the World - Westlife**

"You know, if you wanted to watch me, you could have done it from beside me as easily as from up there." Naruto stated conversationally as he walked.

"Not likely, if I were there, you would be disinclined to act like you would without me watching."Mana who was wearing the Mahora girl's uniform calmly appeared beside him midstride.

Naruto gave the dark skinned girl an amused smirk, "You do realize you basically just confessed that you spend a lot of time stalking me don't you?"

A light pink dusted her cheeks but her stoic expression didn't change, instead she changed the topic.

"Pardon my ignorance but I was just curious. Why are you training someone like Makie-san? It wasn't something I would have expected from someone like you, especially since most would just ignore her since she doesn't have any martial arts background, no potential, no special powers and no money to pay you for your efforts, nothing. Just another normal middle school girl."

Naruto looked at her for a while as they walked in silence, "Do you think training her is pointless? More trouble than it's worth because you won't get anything from her?"

Mana nodded.

The taller blonde gestured back where he left the pink haired girl, "She reminded me of someone I once knew. He was a stupid, brash, weak and headstrong kid. But he was also straightforward and pure. And they both didn't know when to give up."

Naruto gave Mana a wry smile before speaking a slightly bitter tone, "He was so weak and stupid that he head butted a 50 foot demon in the head, it was pure luck and stubbornness he didn't die that day. Everyone that saw him immediately labelled him as stupid, everyone labelled him as weak, thought that he didn't have potential. They were completely right. He was rude, he couldn't read, he couldn't do math, he couldn't even throw a proper punch. He couldn't do any of those even by the time he was 12, but he didn't give up. Even when he didn't know how to fight, how to formulate strategies, even when he was outmatched and outnumbered, he would still willingly charge at an army all by himself. People told him to give up. He told them to find a brick and stuff it."

"Like your opinion of Makie, no one gave him a chance because it was more effort than it was worth. To a certain degree, even the one person who proclaimed himself as his mentor didn't think he was worth it."

Mana raised a curious eyebrow at the suddenly sad smile that spread across the blonde's face, "Until one day he found someone that gave him a chance without judging him. That believed in him. She trained him, healed him, loved him. That person even died for him."

He stopped walking; prompting Mana to do the same, the fire in his eyes burned and Mana felt a shiver run down her back as his aura ignited with all the force of a raging God.

"I stand here today because I worked hard, every scrap of power, intelligence, everything I achieved that you see in me today, everything that for some reason interests you and Nagase-san, I got with blood and sweat. I fought for everything I believed in. Even when I was weak, stupid, brash and universally scorned. Even today I'm still fighting but at least I'm willing to give her that same chance to help her achieve her dreams. It may just be puppy love and she may regret it later on, but the important thing is: I'm giving her a chance now."

He pierced her with a resolved gaze that made Mana feel like she was a child again.

"One day when you are backed in a corner, when money can't help you, your arms can't even lift a gun to save yourself and she saves your ass, remember my words."

Naruto left a parting wave over his shoulder towards a stunned Mana behind as he continued to walk away.

Silently as he walked, he tried to get a handle on his emotions, but the peace and quiet that allowed him to gather his thoughts didn't last long.

"She doesn't want money for money's sake you know."

Naruto glanced at the girl who had suddenly joined his side a few minutes after leaving Mana behind; it was a tall auburn haired girl with a developed body and slanted eyes, "Probably." He admitted with a little shame. "But her words cut a little too close to home for me, so I might have been a little too harsh, in any case, do I know you?"

"Ara… I'm a little sad you don't even know your classmate."

"That still doesn't answer my question; to a dumb hormone filled male like me, all my classmates are beautiful blooming women. You are no different." Naruto pointed out.

"Fufufu, you know how to say the most interesting things. I'm Chizuru Naba, seat 21 of 3-A. Nice to meet you." Chizuru gave him a slight bow as they walked.

"Seat 32, Naruto Namikaze, you were saying something about Tatsumiya-san?"

"Nothing, I just thought you were a little harsh so I thought I might provide you with a little perspective. You see, I volunteer at a day care centre which is associated with the Mahora Academy Church. The church also runs an orphanage; Mana-san quietly donates a lot of money every month for their upkeep."

"Be that as it may, I disliked the way she put down Makie-san." Naruto answered curtly.

"Oh my, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you were at fault. I was simply saying that she likely didn't mean to insult either you or Makie and that there are extenuating circumstances." The tall brunette answered.

"Isn't that the same for everybody?" Naruto said in a dry tone, "But I'll honestly admit that I was wrong and apologize to Tatsumiya-san as soon as I can."

"That's probably the best you can do for now," she admitted before stopping, "I reached my dorm, it was a pleasure talking to you Namikaze-san. I hope to get to you know you better in the future."

"Likewise." Naruto said shortly and was about to turn and leave when a gentle hand touched his cheek. Startled, the blonde could only stare at softly smiling brunette, "You're a good person Naruto, but it's easy for anyone for to see that the self loathing you hold for yourself. If you don't let go off your past, if you keep hating yourself, it'll only eat you from inside slowly until you are nothing but an empty husk."

The brunette gave him a sad smile, "Let it motivate you, but don't let it be the reason you try so hard, push so much because you can't stop beating yourself up from the inside, because you can't forgive your past mistakes. You'll burn out and then who will Negi-sensei and Makie-san look up to? Not just them, I don't think the person that loved you would want that. Fight as hard as you need, protect who you want, but when you finally fall because you pushed too hard, who will protect you? Who'll catch you now that she isn't here? Take that advice from someone that knows how futile hating yourself is, wont you?"

Naruto stared disbelievingly. For a split second the brunette's gently smiling face was overlaid by the image of another woman, also with red hair but with ruby eyes. The way they both spoke and acted was eeriely similar. Gentle but elegant, caring but firm.

The brunette gave him a soft kiss on his other cheek before going up the stairs.

Rooted to the spot by the image that had suddenly passed his mind's eye, the tall blonde watched until the strange girl disappeared from his line of sight, before finally leaving, muttering under his breath about weird classmates with weird advice.

******Broken Faith******

A few hours after his talk with Chizuru found Naruto sitting at the table he had claimed for himself in Evangeline's library as he researched the seals again, in the hall Evangeline was wrapping up her lesson to Setsuna, Negi and Konoka , although it seemed like it wasn't going well.

Not making any progress whatsoever, the blonde slammed the book closed and buried his face in his hands before sighing in frustration. The brunette's earlier words bouncing around inside his head, only this time it wasn't Chizuru who spoke. It was Akane. He just couldn't get it out of his mind, even hours later.

"Bad day?"

Lifting his face from his hands he wryly smiled, "Yeah, you could say that. You done with the rest?"

Evangeline banged her head on the nearest wall, "Those idiots were barely listening to my lecture. Although I'm happy that Asuna and Negi had a fight, hehehe…" the vampire chuckled evilly.

"Meh, the first time something happens that shows them they are inadequately prepared they'll either wise up then appreciate your lessons more, or they fail." Naruto casually said from his seat.

Evangeline stared him, "I really can't tell whether you're lying or not when you say things like that."

Naruto smirked, "You weren't meant to."

"Che, whatever." She observed him a little longer, "Come with me for a while, since your bad day is apparently stopping you from making any progress, this might help you clear your head."

"Oh?" Curiously the taller blonde followed his shorter counterpart, "What do you have in mind?"

"Ever since I saw you fight that Dragon I've been curious of exactly what you are truly capable of, even if it isn't truly magic that you can do. So I want to fight you."

Raising an eyebrow in confusion at the vampire, Naruto spoke, "I thought you can't use any powers? How are you supposed to fight me like that?"

"With this." She opened a large thick door into a room that was occupied by a single glass sphere and what looked like a tiny model of a resort on top of a cyclinder. "Step into that circle." She curtly ordered.

"Here? What's this suppo- whoa!" satisfied that Naruto was teleported inside her resort, she followed him in.

Both of them appeared on a platform that only had a small bridge that led to a building in the distance, "Wh-where is this?"

Evangeline scoffed as she and Naruto started walking towards the building in the distance, "We're inside that glass orb you saw earlier." Naruto looked at her dubiously, "Don't worry about the details, its Magic."

The short explanation was apparently enough and the blonde just shrugged, "This is how we're going to fight. Inside this orb, I can control anything, level of magic, weather, slow down time inside here. Anything. Even say, lift the restraints that are holding both of us back in Mahora."

Naruto went wide eyed, "That's so cool! But you can't replicate the effects outside?"

Evangeline shook her head regretfully, "If I could I would've done it long ago. Anyway, I want to fight you, both of us, full power, nothing held back."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, "Errr… not to sound cowardly or anything, but if we do that, one of us will most likely die." By this time they had both reached the arena.

Evangeline shook her head, "You won't die, it'll hurt like you did, but you won't. So you ready?"

Naruto walked to the opposite side of the arena and stretched, "Sure, this seems interesting. I haven't been able to let loose for a while. Although, promise me you won't tell anyone what I can do."

Evangeline growled, "Yes, I promise! Now are you ready?"

Naruto smirked, "Ladies first."

"Hmph don't regret it," She started chanting, knowing the blonde as she did now, nothing less than her best would do, if he couldn't match up, well… she had overestimated others before. Surprisingly she felt a pang in her heart at that statement. Even more surprising was when she realized the pang was because some slight part of her secretly hoped that he would match up, maybe even beat her, _"Emissa Stagnet, Ice Majesty of A Thousand Years!"_

Maybe she would finally find someone to look up to. She never said it, but sometimes, the pressure of being the one that everybody looked at for answers pressed heavily on her tiny shoulders.

Maybe here was someone she could depend on rather than the opposite. Rakan may have been more powerful than she was, but he was flakier than corn cereal, she thought with a sweat drop.

Even a God would get lonely at the top, and she was no better.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the rocketing amount of magic the small girl was radiating.

"_Pro Armatione, Queen of Ice!"_

The result was nothing short of awe inspiring and impressive.

"Impressed yet?"

Naruto smiled, "Yeah, my little sister did good."

Evangeline stomped her foot, creating a crater and an ice spire in a tantrum, "I'm _NOT _your little sister!"

"Yet." He pointed out with amusement colouring his tone.

"Grr! Are you just going to stand there and talk or fight?"

Scratching the back of his head, Naruto wondered if what he had in mind would work, deciding it wouldn't hurt to try, especially with Chizuru's words still resonating in him. He started gathering his own not unimpressive amount of power, Evangeline watched stunned as the blonde literally exploded with a sea of power with a roar to the heavens that vibrated in her ribcage and somehow sounded sad.

"Tha-that's….!"

Naruto looked at his arm with a sad smile as tears started running down his cheeks; he hadn't been in this nostalgic form in a while.

It seemed like today was a day for buried memories to resurface.

Looks like Eva-chan wasn't joking when she said she could lift all the restraints.

"I'll tell you if you can beat me. Deal?"

"Grrr, Deal!"

The two titans charged.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto raised an eyebrow from his desk in class. Asuna was sitting as far away from Negi as she could, right at the back of class. Which happened to be beside him.

Poking her side he asked, "What's up with you and Negi?"

She frowned, "He did something stupid."

"Asuna, his 10 years old! If he _didn't_ do something stupid I'd start checking if he had a fever." Her blonde classmate replied with mock exasperation.

Asuna giggled at his reply before quieting down again, "It-it's nothing, I'll handle it by myself alright?" she tried to smile at him.

Naruto shrugged.

******Broken Faith******

That evening he was walking back to his tent from Evangeline's when he saw Asuna practicing kendo with her _harisen_. That wasn't what got her attention, what did get his attention was the fact that he also saw her in the exact same spot, doing the exact same thing 6 hours ago when he walked this way to the cottage. Something was bothering the girl.

He sighed, why did he have to be so nice around girls with problems?

Walking over, he bonked her on the head, interrupting her mid swing.

"Ow! Naruto? What was that for?" Asuna cried in indignation.

Said blonde didn't say anything but motioned with a jerk of his head for her to follow him. Seeing him leave without waiting for her, the twin tailed girl reluctantly followed Naruto.

They walked for a while in silence until they reached his clearing, Asuna gaped at the tent, "This? This is where you stay?" raising an eyebrow at her exclamation he replied, "Well, yeah, I wasn't about to invade a girl's privacy in the dorms. Everything I need is out here, I like the forest and I just go to the dorms for a quick bath. I don't need anything fancy, no big swimming pool, comfy bed or anything. This is good enough for me." That reminded him, he should probably go check his bank account soon.

He pottered around a campfire, setting a kettle up to boil before sitting on a log, "Sit." He gestured at the log beside him.

Asuna reluctantly sat down, she had a fair idea what was about this was about.

"Ok, talk."

"It's nothing big Naruto. Me and Negi were just behaving like kids." Asuna tried to hedge.

"Behaving like kids doesn't cause you to practice the same thing, in the same spot for more than 6 hours, you know." Naruto said as he passed her a cup of tea.

Asuna sighed, "Remember when Maki-chan said Negi told her that he trusted all of us to have his back when the time comes?" Naruto nodded, "Well, Nodoka and Yue-cchi found a clue about his father somewhere deep in Library Island. I said we'd all go together to find out what this clue was."

Naruto realized this was what Negi and the two girls were doing there when he and Evangeline went down as well. Come to think of it, Asuna wasn't there.

"Well, he purposely went while I was doing my paper route, because he didn't want me to come. After that we had an argument and we both called each other some names and I got angry. Later that night he summoned me _while _I was bathing and Takahata-sensei saw me…um…you know… naked." Naruto winced.

Asuna's dam broke.

"But you know what? What really got me angry were two things; he acted like he didn't want me to come because I was some delicate little girl for him to save, I mean, even Nodoka and Yue were there. No offense to them, but not many things get more delicate than those two. And then he had to audacity to say that I wasn't supposed to get involved in stuff like this in the first place so I shouldn't have needed to come. I mean I practiced kendo so hard so I could help him in the future, but he acts like I was something to just use for Kyoto and ditch when things were done? He didn't say it, but his words implied it. Where's the trust in that?"

Asuna got up and started to pace, "Grr… even thinking about that makes me boil. Here I am worried about him, but he a 10 year old thinks I'm some delicate damsel in distress for him to save? And that I wasn't supposed to be there in the first place? After everything we went through together?"

Naruto sat on his log and pinched the bridge of his nose; sometimes he felt Negi would have done better in an all boy's school. If anybody had a problem, everybody would have just punched somebody. End of story.

"You know," Naruto started almost conversationally, "You're a brash, reckless and headstrong person. But of all those, sometimes your pride really annoys me." Asuna got angrier as each of her flaws were stated out loud.

"Wha? Headstrong? Pride?" Asuna spluttered.

"Am I wrong? You got angry because his words wounded your pride as a strong person when he implied you were some weak girl. Your pride was wounded because you felt he didn't need you when he left you out. Your pride was wounded because after all your efforts in learning kendo, he unintentionally belittles that effort when he said you weren't supposed to be involved in the first place. Face it, you are too prideful to admit you are worried for him, and he doesn't know how much his words hurt even though he is equally worried for you."

Asuna was already blushing but her face burned even hotter in added embarrassment at the wry tone Naruto was using to describe their idiocy and tried to argue, "But that doesn't change the fact that his wrong!"

"His ten years old Asuna, you can't expect him to know what his words really mean sometimes. He may act like an adult at times, but his still a kid in reality." Naruto said exasperatedly.

Getting tired of looking up at the girl from his vantage point, he pulled her down onto his lap while she was too busy spluttering.

"Wha-what are you doing Naruto!" Asuna cried with a blush as she landed in his lap.

"Settle down you idiot." Asuna stopped squirming in his lap and laid her hands on the arm around her waist, face burning brightly.

"B-but his still wrong, I can't go forgive him just like that!"

"Oh his wrong, I never said he wasn't even if it probably wasn't intentional," Naruto admitted then he gave her a mischievous grin, "I never said to forgive him immediately either, nothing wrong with letting him steam for a bit so that he'll think about what leaves his mouth next time." causing Asuna to give him a reluctant grin in reply.

When the moment passed, Naruto sighed and placed his chin on her shoulder, "Is it so hard to show how much you care sometimes, Asuna? You care so much that you don't want him to go do things without you there to catch him when he falls. Now look at it from his perspective. That idiot cares for his students so much so he tries to keep all of you safe by not trying to involve any of you in his world, even when he desperately needs help. Since you are you already involved he can't do anything about it, so his trying to limit that involvement. His failing spectacularly I'll admit, but it doesn't stop him from trying, his clumsy explanation being one of the latest examples."

The auburn haired girl stiffened at the feeling of his breath playing around her neck and the wramth pooling against her back before slowly relaxing and leaning back into the embrace. She would never admit it, but she missed the closeness they had shared in Kyoto.

It felt safe.

Asuna chuckled, "When you put it that way it really sounds stupid."

"It_ is_ stupid."

They relaxed.

Naruto was also enjoying the closeness when he heard Asuna mumble something he couldn't hear, "What's that?"

Asuna took a deep breath to steady her nerves, "It's not just my pride…. You know I'm an orphan. I was really anti social and I didn't really have many friends, still don't. Negi was the first male friend my age and we had dream like adventures together. But when he said he didn't need me, when he wanted to grow strong and fight Chachamaru alone, a part of me was afraid." Asuna shamefully admitted.

Naruto didn't say anything and just let Asuna unburden herself; this was something far more serious than her pride.

"I was afraid, when we fought Evangeline, when we were in Kyoto, no matter how scared I was, it was really fun fighting together. Then recently, he got stronger, and insisted on doing it alone. Deep down, I was afraid of being left behind. Like I was all those years ago, alone, no memories and no friends. When I got angry, a part of it was me being angry at myself for being so selfish, for wanting him to remain weak so I could stay at his side."

Asuna furiously wiped away her tears of shame, "Heh, look at me now, I must look so embarrassing and pathetic."

Naruto just held her tighter. "Everyone has a part of themselves like that. A shameful part that isn't so honourable, that's selfish and greedy. Even me." He gently stated, trying to calm the girl down.

Asuna looked at him dubiously.

He smiled gently, "I'm not lying. At first, I honestly didn't want to get close to you. Part of it was because I didn't want to get hurt again. But I did anyway. When that happened I decided to tell you about my wife. A part of me wanted to just keep it a secret, so that nothing changed, so you didn't hate me. When I finally told you, a part of me shamefully wanted me to ask for more than friendship so you would replace her in my heart. But you didn't deserve that. You see, what makes the difference between you and that dark little secret part is whether or not you let it out to dictate what you do."

Asuna leaned back onto him, "Thanks for telling me that Naruto…" she whispered.

The blonde just smiled in reply.

Akako watched the two of them talk before cocking her head. Leaping off the log she had been resting on she scrambled up Asuna and nuzzled her.

"Heheh, it tickles, stop it Akako."

The blonde smiled, "See, even she wants you to cheer up."

Asuna cuddled the bundle of fur and kissed Akako's head before scratching her tummy, causing the little fox to purr and her leg to twitch. "Thanks for that you little furball. I needed it."

She got a cheerful yip in reply.

They sat there for a while in silence, "C-can you play your flute? I-I haven't had the chance to listen to you play in a while, since everybody is so busy." the twin tailed girl asked shyly.

Naruto chuckled before summoning his flute from a seal before starting to play the song he had played on Asuna's birthday.

Asuna fell asleep cuddling Akako on Naruto's lap while the sun set around them and the melody of a flute reverbrated around the clearing.

Seeing her completely asleep, the blonde resealed his flute and laid a small peck on her cheek, "You don't have to be afraid of being alone anymore Asuna. I'll always be there. I promised."

Lifting her and the kitsune in her arms up, he set off to let her sleep in her own bed.

******Broken Faith******

**In the Dean's office.**

"Ah, Eishun. Good of you to call, it saved me the trouble of contacting you myself."

"Father-in-Law, it's good to talk to you again, but I'm afraid this isn't a social call." Konoemon felt his eyebrows knit at the serious tone Eishun was using.

"Oh? This sounds important."

"I'm afraid so. Someone released Hermann and his subordinates. They tried to release Amagasaki Chigusa and Kotarou Inugami as well but failed."

"Sigh... this is bad, but on the bright side they didn't get Amagasaki-san and Kotarou-kun. How did they fail?"

There was silence on the other end of the line, "They...technically didn't fail. They managed to release both of them, but to be precise; Kotarou refused to help them in their goal and from eyewitness reports, he fought them before managing to barely escape."

There was more silence, "Amagasaki on the other hand... refused to leave her prison. To be completely honest, she is absolutely terrified of leaving the wards at all. Whatever Naruto-san did to her, Amagasaki can no longer sleep. From what we can tell, everytime she does, she suffers nightmares or more precisely, she feels every bit of fear and pain she ever caused to anything, even an ant. All this, from her victim's point of view."

Konoemon frowned, "I-I think that punishment is too harsh, should I try to get him to undo whatever he did to her?"

"Maybe, but I would prefer to let her suffer a bit longer. You see, when Naruto-san caught up to her, he found her abusing a small kitsune demon. Apparently she tried to summon a more malicious demon after her plan with Ryomen-Sukuna no Kami was defeated, but that failed as well due to her lack of magical power. Angry, she took it out on the nearest thing and nearly killed the baby kitsune that she managed to summon...to say that Naruto-san reacted badly would be an understatement."

'_So that's where that small fox came from...'_

"I see... Naruto... is an interesting person is he not? What did you think about my request?"

"I wondered for a while. Pactios are rather rarely used among the Eastern Mages so I was surprised, but your plan has merit. Giving a neutral party a pactio from the heads of the Western and Eastern Mage Leaders shows our trust in him and elevates him to Ambassador Status among all mages on Earth. When we cannot decide in an argument because we are both biased, we can turn to a neutral party that is aware of magic but has nothing to gain from siding with one side or another, in this case; Naruto-san. Something like that would greatly benefit relationships between both parties but I assume that wasn't your only reason?"

Konoemon chuckled, his son-in-law was rather astute despite his frail stature.

Correctly considering the chuckle he heard as confirmation of his theory, Eishun continued, "I assume that another part of the reason you wanted me to form a Pactio with him was to see if the same irregularities I felt in the Pactio I made with him was present in the one with yours?"

"That is correct. Do you think it will become a problem in the future?"

Eishun considered the question and carefully replied, "No... it's... irregular. But it definitely didn't feel malicious. Not to mention both Setsuna and Konoka are smitten with him. If nothing else, I trust their judgement."

"Oho? My cute cute granddaughter is finally interested in men? I wonder if I should arrange an omiai...hohohoho..."

Eishun sweat dropped on the other side of the line and felt like sympathizing with his daughter. Or at least sending her a red DANGER sign with Konoemon's face pasted on it.

On the other hand, she might actually like the idea and if he did something to endanger her chances, she would probably string him up by the balls.

He wondered if he should send Konoka her mother's whips.

Elsewhere; Naruto who was in his tent felt weird shivers run down his back, causing Chachamaru who was playing with Akako to look at him weirdly.

******Broken Faith******

**AN**

**One particular reviewer asked me to write a part about when Akane was taken, and his tragic journey from suicidal to cold apathetic bordering mental using the song from Clannad OST : Uminari. Don't worry its already planned.**

**Unfortunately I won't be using his idea. I happen to know that song very well, doesn't stop me from trying to forget that particular song though, I try to pretend I never heard of Clannad sometimes. I didn't like it, and I never will.**

**That leads me to my response; I hate angst. And I will never write anything suicidal because I despise that particular act as cowardly and weak. Despite the heaviness in my fic as most of my reviewers call it, I will never voluntarily write angst or suicide. It may border angst quite a bit but I guarantee I won't knowingly write it. I never saw the point in brooding like an idiot, oh woe is me, my life sucks, so I have to walk around with my head up my arse before I die.**

**Tch, even just writing that way gives me a bad taste in my mouth.**

**What I write is about my characters facing their fears. Angst on the other hand is wailing when people try to make you face your fears and being a clingy coward for a significant period of time. One good example are people that write Naruto as someone who loves person A so much that he literally becomes incapacitated if Persona A suffers a tiny scratch. He hyperventilates at seeing Persona A bleed and mopes at being so weak and unable to stop Person A from bleeding. And it drags out the entire story. That example actually came from a fic I read before; I won't mention the author's name or his/her fic out of respect.**

**Have a Merry Christmas**

**John**


	12. Painful Memories

**Broken Faith 12**

**Pain of Memories.**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto as much as his screwing it up nowadays anyway, Negima belongs to Akamatsu Ken.**

**AN : I'm really grateful for the slew of reviews telling me the reason why I didn't get much reviews was because I replaced the AN with chapter 10, thus an alert never went out. and of those that realized it anyway, most already reviewed on the AN chapter. so its mainly my fault and I apologize. thanks for bearing with me and please don't feel pressured to review because I was mopey. Being 6000 miles from my family during Christmas does that to me.**

**Part 3 of 3 of my Christmas Special back to back release. And here it is. My Last release for a while, I hope you liked the 3 chapter combo. cause you wont be getting anything for at least 2 weeks.**

**It gets rather….um dark at the bottom, i tried not to eh... you know what? Go read it yourself. Hehehehe. Do becareful.**

**Soundtrack List**

**Trust You – **Yuna Ito

******Broken Faith******

"E-evil Naruto-sensei, *pant pant* a-are you coming on the trip to the beach wtith Negi-sensei and the others for Golden Week?"

Said blonde glanced down at his 'somewhat' student who was currently panting on the ground beside his second student, "I don't know. Not likely though, I have something I need to do."

"Eeeehhh~? Why not?" the pink haired girl questioned while her partner just grunted in agreement, too tired to say anything else.

"If I can finish my project in time then yeah I'll go. If I don't, then I won't, I'd rather not leave Eva-chan and Chachamaru behind while everyone is having fun. Oh, is Tatsumiya-san going as well?" Naruto asked.

"Eh? Mana-chan? Um I think so; but it's free so I think she'd be there. But she doesn't really mix with us." Makie suddenly developed a rather evil grin, "Why are you asking about her? Evil Naruto-sensei has a crush?"

"Eh, little kids like you shouldn't talk about adult things," Naruto replied offhandedly, smirking when the girl started fuming about not being a child.

"Enough, if you have enough strength to rant like that; you can swim another 20 laps"

"Sensei! What about me?"

"You as well, Hime."

"Geeehhh!"

"With another 5kg added to the menu." The blonde added with a smirk.

"Nuuuuuuuu! Evillllll!"

"Uh huh. By the way, if both of you don't want another 5 laps, both of you better start swimming."

******Broken Faith******

**On a Southern Island a few days later.**

"It's the seaside~~!"

Ayaka sweat dropped as she watched her classmates jump into the water, "Grrr! Wh-why is this happening? My plan to spend time alone with Negi-sensei at the beach is ruined!"

"Ufufufu, if you didn't want this to happen, you shouldn't have boasted to Haruna-chan and Kazumi." She heard from behind her, spinning around she turned to face the Mother of 3-A and her other dorm mate, Natsumi, "Uguu…. Why are you here too Chizuru!"

**Elsewhere with Asuna**

"Sigh, why did I have to come along too? Something so fancy…" Asuna grumbled.

"Mah mah, you need to relax a bit Asuna-chan, this way you get a break from delivering papers for a while." Her female dorm mate spoke from beside her. "Besides…." Konoka glanced at her homeroom teacher, but left the rest unspoken. Asuna grunted, "Speaking of tired, you've been looking pretty wiped out as well."

"Eh? Um... Ah, look, Negi-sensei wants to talk to you!" her dormmate hurriedly changed the topic.

Asuna looked at where Konoka was glancing and saw her homeroom teacher who was apparently trying to get her attention. "Hmph!" she quickly walked away, mostly because she didn't want them to see she had a smug smile on her lips.

It did a woman's ego good to be chased after all. See if he called her a delicate girl in such a backhanded way again.

'Uuuu…. Asuna-san is still angry after all…' Negi thought dejectedly until a hand ruffled his hair. Looking up his saw his blonde nii san, Chachamaru-san with Chachazero on her head and his magic teacher beside him wearing a cute sundress and a broad brimmed sun hat. "Nii san! Evangeline-san! Chachamaru-san!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Yo."

"Hmph."

"Negi-sensei." They all greeted him in turn.

"What are you doing here Evangeline-san? I thought you can't leave Mahora Academy?" he asked, not noticing a new bracelet lined with silver runes that Evangeline was currently wearing.

Negi watched in confusion as a light pink dusted the vampire's cheeks and she averted her eyes, "Wh-what? You think someone so powerful like me can be stopped by a simple barrier?" he continued to watch in confusion as Naruto nudged Evangeline with a smug smirk and they quietly argued about something. Or more precisely, Evangeline argued about something while Naruto ignored her complaints with a smirk.

While the two were arguing he dejectedly went to wade into the water and wonder what he was doing wrong when he was suddenly set upon by the paedophi- I mean, students of 3-A that fell into the cute category, excluding Ayaka.

Surrounded by bickering girls that were vying for his attention finally caused Negi's already tired brains to snap, their home room teacher swam away as fast as possible only to accidentally swim straight up into Chizuru's bikini. Jealousy flared, mostly at the busty motherly girl of 3-A causing every other girl there to ram their teacher into marshmallow heaven.

Sitting under some shade not far away was Evangeline, Chachamaru, Chachazero and 3-A's only male student watched as their homeroom teacher was pounced on by boob wielding girls.

"You know, I'm not sure if I want to congratulate that boy for being squashed between so many boobs, or hit him because he doesn't know how to appreciate the enormity of what just happened." The male student commented casually.

"Grrr…. Can you not be so perverted?"

Naruto glanced at her from the corner of his eye, "You know, if you're jealous, I can just throw him up your sundress if you want," He offered the vampire, "Of course, then I'd have to roast him for peeking up my sister's dress."

"You-b-g-ya-wh-huh! I am _not _jealous!"

"You didn't deny you wanted him to go peek up your sundress though," Naruto replied with a lop sided grin.

"!#%$^!#&^*&"

"My my, who knew that someone elegant like you knew such…obscenities."

"Must not strangle, must not strangle….." Evangeline chanted under her breath, causing Naruto to laugh, ah... poking the tiger was so much fun.

"Say, why aren't you going swimming anyway?" he said while observing a shallow pool nearby where Akako and Chachazero were splashing each other."

Evangeline averted her eyes and mumbled something under her breath, Naruto squinted his eyes at her as he struggled to hear what she was saying, "I can't hear you, can you speak up?"

Evangeline took a deep breath and quietly confessed, "I can't swim, I'm scared of water."

Naruto observed the vampire fidget in her seat with an unsettling expression on his face; turning to Chachamaru he asked the gynoid, "Did you bring any swim wear for Evangeline?"

"Yes, although Master insists it was a waste of my time." Her lip curled slightly as she realized what the blonde's plan was.

Smiling the blonde stood up, threw a protesting Evangeline onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes before she could run away, walking over to Chachamaru he took the bag from her and gave her a small peck on her cheek as thanks before dragging a screaming Evangeline away to change.

Chachamaru stood rooted to the spot, seemingly watching the duo leave. While they had been close together especially whenever she slipped into Naruto's tent, he had never overtly displayed any signs of affection in the open where people could see. And she never expected him to either, she was happy enough that he let her pretend in his tent and never said anything about it, something she was thankful for.

However, right now the gears in her chassis were spinning like crazy at the sudden move, even if it was only a chaste peck on the cheeks, her processors were throwing up gibberish on all her screens, causing the gynoid to overheat before everything shut down with a poof of smoke.

The gynoid fainted standing up.

Not far away a small kitsune sniggered at seeing the poof of smoke and the gynoid's blank eyes.

******Broken Faith**** **

In a secluded cove a few minutes later, a one piece swimsuit wearing Evangeline _( Either you change yourself in privacy of the changing rooms, or I strip you down and change for you out here in public )_ who mulishly refused to go anywhere near the water.

Naruto sighed at the vampire's stubbornness, "Look, either you slowly walk in with me holding your hands, or I just throw you in with or without your consent. Your choice." Under his breath he muttered, "700 year old my ass."

He picked the vampire up in a bridal carry causing the vampire to shriek in panic, "Nooo!"

"It's ok, I won't let you go. Just close your eyes and hold on." He tried to soothe her.

Evangeline screwed her eyes shut and desperately clung to Naruto like a leech. Naruto grunted as her grip on his neck got even tighter as soon as her back touched the water slightly.

"Relax, just relax. I'm not letting go. You don't have to open your eyes. Just feel the water; it won't swallow you if you don't let it."

He stood there with Evangeline in his arms for nearly 10 minutes, muttering quiet words of encouragement into her ear; it took that long for the vampire's tension to finally bleed out, even if the water from the push and pull of the waves barely lapped at her back.

And Naruto never let go, some things weren't meant to be made fun of.

Slowly he lowered her into the water when her grip didn't feel so painful anymore, so that she didn't notice until half her horizontal body was submerged in water, careful not to let any get on her face.

"Feel the water around you, cool, gentle. A source of life that you shouldn't be afraid off. You don't have to open your eyes, but extend your magic, feel the water all around you, enveloping you." Naruto softly cooed to the terrified vampire.

Evangeline never felt more peaceful in her life, something she regretfully admitted she never missed before this, mostly because she never knew this feeling before, or at least couldn't remember them anymore. The feeling of being supported by someone she could truly depend on and didn't have an ulterior motive.

She felt afloat and so light.

Minutes passed as she let the sounds of the waves engulf her and the cool water all around her until she felt a quiet tap on the shoulder. Prying her still shut eyelids she saw a gentle grinning face hovering above her.

Then she realized she was floating in the water, the only support she had was Naruto's hand that was still being gripped tightly in hers so that she didn't float away.

"See, you're not afraid of water anymore."

Evangline averted her eyes with a blush; she had been so childish over something so simple? Or was it simple simply because there was someone to support her? She had done things alone for centuries, the feeling of something so hard; being so easy simply because she had someone to help her was an alien concept to the vampire.

"C'mon, I'll teach you how to swim next."

Evangeline shyly agreed.

******Broken Faith******

He breathed in the beach air, walking on the pier around the water chalets that served as the class's accommodation for tonight.

Wearing nothing but a white flannel shirt that was only half buttoned up and a pair of Bahama shorts he was relaxing from a day full of fun, enjoying the cool evening breeze and savouring the beautiful sun set that painted everything a warm red and orange. Come to think of it, this was probably only his second time at a beach.

Evangeline was already out like a light after a tiring day of learning how to swim while Chachamaru watched over her like a fussy Onee-chan even if she didn't show it. Akako was also napping; last he saw of the lump of fur, she was curled up like a ball around Chachazero on the bed.

Walking along the pier he finally came to an isolated veranda where he saw a figure standing. He assumed she was also enjoying the evening air. Steeling his nerves he walked towards her.

"Hello Namikaze-san." Naruto winced, he had been downgraded from Naruto-san to Namikaze-san.

"Tatsumiya-san. I didn't see you with the others today."

The dark skinned girl who was wearing a silky evening dress smiled slightly, "I found them a little too boisterous. So I was somewhere else with Kaede where it wasn't so loud." Mana said softly.

"You know, the way you talk, I don't find it surprising that the others doubt that you are merely 15 years old." Naruto quipped.

She looked at him with slight amusement, "Some people had to grow up faster than the rest. I'm sure you understand what I mean."

Naruto sobered, "Yeah."

They were silent for a little longer, until a figdeting Naruto felt the need to fill the silence again, "Listen, I'm sorry for being so harsh that day. You were merely curious and asking a perfectly logical question. It was just that the question touched a rather sore spot from my youth, and I took it out on you." He tried to explain as best he could.

Mana didn't reply for a while, "I was a little disappointed in you. Everybody has their own reasons and pasts, I had thought you would be more understanding than most, people like us, we grow up fast, we learn that we can't depend on anyone but ourselves earlier than most and we look out for ourselves. Had they come from any other, I could have cared less, but your words stung a little." Mana admitted while Naruto felt a slight stab of guilt, "Nonetheless, now that I know you weren't being harsh simply because you could, I don't mind anymore. Nonetheless, I'll be honest as well and admit that you were right in that Kaede and I were rather shallow in our approach of you. If you weren't good looking and intriguing we would not have given you another glance."

Naruto shook his head, "That still doesn't excuse me for being an idiot and hurting you," He admitted shamefully. "And I can't blame you for judging based on first impressions. No matter what anyone says, first impressions always leave their marks on the way we act towards others. Your classmate, Naba-san showed that to me very clearly."

"Naba? Chizuru-san?" Mana said, slightly surprised.

Naruto smiled, "Maybe it's because she is so different from us, a normal school girl yet not a normal school girl, that she could see the mistakes that people like us make. Like you, I was harsh on you because of my preconceptions towards you. She took the time to explain to me that you weren't interested in money for money alone. She didn't tell me exactly what you were using it for, but hinted that a likely reason would be that you donated heavily to the orphanage."

"Fufufu, Looks like I underestimated another of my classmates, it looks like what you said about Makie has merit, I'll have to thank Chizuru-san one day. I hope you have a good evening Naruto-san." Mana said softly before stepping away, leaving Naruto alone on the veranda. As she stepped past him he heard her softly whisper, "Tell Makie-san I wished her good luck in obtaining her goals."

Naruto smiled, Mana it seemed was a rather clumsy girl that gave her answers in a roundabout way; acknowledging his words about chances in her sentence about Makie and Chizuru before asking him to give her regards to Makie. He didn't mind, people like him and Mana usually found it hard to express themselves in words, even apologizing to her like this had been rather humbling.

He stood for a few minutes alone and enjoying the sea breeze when two arms wrapped around his neck from behind in a gentle hug and he felt two large womanly assets being pressed to his broad back, "I was surprised, you really apologized to her. No posturing at all, quite unlike most men I had the misfortune of meeting might add." A gentle voice filled with humour spoke near his ear.

Naruto smiled, "I'm not most men."

"True, but admit it, it was hard wasn't it?" The same humour filled voice said in reply.

Embarassed by the ease in which the owner of the voice had seen through his actions Naruto chuckled sadly, he half expected to turn around and find Akane standing there like she did barely 2 years ago in his mind, "I guess it boils down to pride. Ironic that I just spoke to Asuna about her own pride recently. I guess I'm not used to making mistakes like that, not anymore anyway, so it was hard to humble myself again after being used to being in control of things for so long."

A comfortable silence filled the veranda after his admission but the arms remained around his neck as he felt more weight settle itself on his back, probably the person resting her forehead on his back.

"Why are you helping me with this? No offense meant but we never talked before, so I don't see a reason for you to involve yourself in a petty quarrel, even if most of the class call you their Mothe-" a menacing aura spread from behind him as the arms around his neck tightened. Naruto gulped nervously, '_She even has Akane's signature menacing aura down pat_!' before hurriedly changing his words, "Even if the class knows you are very caring."

"Hmm? Maybe I'm just a busybody? Maybe I'm following my own first impressions of you and can't stop avoiding a handsome young man? Who knows?"

Naruto blushed embarrassedly at being called a handsome young man, he knew it of course, but receiving a compliment in such an open manner still embarrassed him.

"Arara, you're blushing, how cute. Nonetheless, I should reward such a handsome young man for being so honest and sincere."

Soft lips brushed against his cheek, "Now if we can just get you to stop hating yourself, you might get a better present than that." The soft arms unwound from around his neck before the weight left and he felt her presence walk away.

"Hmph, so many weird girls but I can't find it in myself to be repulsed about it. Kami, I love you."

He could have sworn he heard a smug 'I know.' floating on the evening breeze.

Once he heard that he decided he probably had _too_ much breeze and decided to walk back to the chalet he was sharing with Akako. Chachamaru had one with Evangeline. When he was nearing the chalets he heard some yelling; _'Bondage girl and Asuna?'_

******Broken Faith******

"Honestly, why are you being so stubborn? Especially since you already forgave him, I've known you for so long," Ayaka pulled her the lids of her eyes up, "Ever since you were a silent anti-social brat with weird eyes, the only thing that hasn't changed is your stubbornness."

"Uguu... when I forgive him is my problem isn't it? Would you like it if he called you useless?" Asuna hotly replied. "So what if I let him steam a bit longer? He won't learn if we coddle him like that!" Asuna stomped into the bath, slamming the door in Ayaka's face.

"O-oi! You running away? Negi-sensei was crying you know! Maybe he was wrong, but dragging it out for so long isn't good for either of you!" Ayaka yelled while banging on the door.

She sighed when she got no reply, "Honestly, don't make me the only person trying to help you two."

The blonde walked out onto the pier, taking deep gulps of air to soothe her nerves after her yelling match with her old friend. Resting her elbow on the railing, the blonde heiress buried her face in her hands. "What the hell am I doing... helping my love rival get even closer to Negi-sensei."

"Your being a good person, that's what."

Her head snapped up in surprise, she hadn't expected anybody to be around, much less hear her argument with Asuna before stiffening when she felt someone lean on the railing beside her. Looking to her side, she was surprised to see her only male classmate. Now that she knew there wasn't any threat from a stranger she went back to burying her face in her palms.

"How the hell is it good? Helping Asuna get closer to Negi-sensei like that while I'm suffering on the inside, heck why am I even telling you this? You're nothing but an annoying classmate." Ayaka finished with a strangled laugh.

Said annoying classmate moved. Stepping behind her he hugged her from behind, causing her to stiffen before inexplicably leaning back into the warmth, "Maybe you're suffering. But that isn't my point. From my perspective, there aren't many things more admirable than what you just did. Putting your friends before your own feelings, reminds me of something I heard before; 'I'd rather be an honest fool that does what is right, than a cowardly elite that does what is selfish."

He squeezed the warm body in his arms gently, "It probably doesn't feel good right now, but take comfort in your actions, that you know you did the right thing rather than allow them to continue fighting for your own designs. If nothing else, you have my respect. I don't respect you because you are beautiful. I don't respect you because you are talented. I don't respect you because you are rich. I respect you because of what you just did. And because of that, if you ever need help, don't hesitate to call."

Ayaka scoffed to hide the fact that she was blushing bright enough to match the setting sun at being complimented so openly, "Wh-why would someone like me need the help of a blonde idiot like you?

"The offer still stands bondage girl. I'll be seeing you."

Ayaka snorted again, she hadn't been called that since Kyoto, and strangely enough she missed it. She also noted that it suddenly felt twice as cold as before as a shiver ran down her back at the loss of the warmth that had surrounded her scant seconds ago.

"Heh…. do what is right huh? You say some good things... idiot," she whispered.

Her words were blown away by the wind.

******Broken Faith******

Negi ran as fast as he could while frantically trying to sense and avoid whatever Naruto-nii san was firing at him, chanting under his breath, he fired a quick _Albicans Fulguratio_ only for it to be deflected by a spray of bullets. Negi grumbled, his nii san's Pactio artefact was so unfair sometimes. Ducking under yet another bullet, he invoked the Cantus Bellax under his breath and dashed towards his cloaked nii-san only for the blonde to suddenly spin on the spot, spraying bullets all around him, throwing tiles, cement and dust into the air.

Negi skidded to a stop; introducing his head to a hunk of rock while going at that speed wouldn't be pleasant. Which was exactly what Naruto wanted, aided by his mask's targetting capabilities, he fired through the smokescreen at where Negi had stopped, his shot punching through the debris like wet paper.

A slight yell of pain confirmed his hit.

The automatic targeting reticule that usually hung in mid air in his field of vision, ever since Kyoto, disappeared as he powered down his rifle and lifted the mask to show his face.

Walking through the settling dust he crouched over Negi who happened to be clutching his shoulder while flat on his back, "I didn't put enough power into that shot to hurt, it shouldn't even have pierced your skin so relax, and next time, don't stand still when you have someone trying to give you a third nostril."

"De-demo, it still hurts nii san... why do I have to fight you as well as Evangeline and Chachamaru-san anyway?" Negi whined to his brother figure.

Naruto chuckled, "You needed more battlefield experience fighting different opponents Chibi, and I happened to be around when Evangeline asked for one. Besides I get to practice with my Pactio, so it's all good for both of us eh?"

The taller one sat beside the panting Negi, "Besides, fighting me with my Pactio gives you a non mage opponent, which means no barriers, but also faster, ranged and doesn't need any time to chant and still be able to deliver a lot of damage. Fighting Evangeline and her Dolls gives you practice against multiple opponents, melee, or otherwise. But you're getting stronger Chibi; yesterday you only lasted 5 seconds against Eva and 10 against me. Today you went 12 with Eva and 20 against me."

"Heheheh, I'm getting there Nii san. I'm getting there slowly, but I'm getting there."

"Yeah, but don't let it get to your head, Chibi. Training hard to get there is one thing, but you're pushing yourself too hard. Some of the girls in class are starting to get worried about you. Speaking of class, I'm going to get ready. You should too."

Negi sweat dropped, "Ready for class? The only thing you do in class is _sleep_!"

"Yeah, I needed a new pillow; I finished using all this year's textbooks already. I was thinking about getting next year's. I heard their thicker and more water resistant. Don't know why but all my textbooks keep getting wet for some reason." He heard the offhanded and genuinely puzzled reply.

Negi couldn't find it in himself to explain why.

******Broken Faith*******

Naruto walked out of the library in Evangeline's resort, "Eva-chan, I need to ask you som-"

He stopped in order to watch in fascination as he found a group of his classmates moving sneakily along the Main staircase that connected all the facilities inside the tower; they were apparently following the voices that came from Eva's bedroom.

Wondering how in the world they got in, he decided to follow them quietly.

As they stopped short of the one that led into her bedroom, Naruto peeked over their heads to where he could feel Evangeline sitting on her bed with Negi, trying to persuade the boy to let her drink more blood. Something the rest were misunderstanding, judging by the radiant blushes he could see even in the dark.

Standing right behind Setsuna he said just one word. "Boo."

"Kyaaaaah!" all 5 girls started shrieking.

"Who's there?"Evangeline demanded. Naruto walked out from behind the staircase with an amused smirk, followed by 6 blushing, panting girls.

"What the hell are all of you doing in here without permission?"

Asuna was pushed forward, automatically designated as the spokeswoman albeit involuntarily, going by the betrayed looks she was shooting the other innocently whistling 5 girls, composing herself she tried to reply, "W-we uh, were worried about Negi-sensei looking so tired in class. So we…uh… tried to follow him here to see what he was doing, then we…uh heard that…uh" Asuna blushed again, as did the girls behind her, "um…weird conversation?" she finished lamely.

Evangeline blushed when she realized what the red head was implying, "Wh-what do you think I was doing, the bouya was paying me in blood in return for teaching him! I wasn't doing anything else, his blood just replenishes my magic! What do you think I was doing?"

Then Evangeline noticed the smirking blonde who had been leaning on the wall casually while enjoying the show, "And you! What are you doing in here?"

He waved his hand, "It's nothing, I just wanted to talk to you in private, but I'm sure it can wait until you explained everything to the girls." He finished with a sly smile. Evangeline gnashed her teeth, knowing it was mostly because he enjoyed watching all of them get embarrassed, humiliated and flustered.

A few minutes later after everyone else had understood that Evangeline _wasn't _doing anything perverted and where they were, Evangeline sat back on the bed and looked at the blonde who was looking bored at the minimal amount of humiliation. "So? You said you needed something from me?"

Naruto replied, "Yeah, I needed a list all your skills and the exact amount of effort you put into each spell so that the seals don't interfere in their casting if you go out after I properly recalibrate the variables in our project. Last time it worked so you could go out, but I didn't have time to mess with the parts that lifted your power limiters so you were still as weak as a normal 10 year old."

"Huh? Doesn't the seal just create a blanket limiter? Why all my spells?"

"No, no, not just spells, skills, like your super strength, natural flight abilities etc etc, whoever made this seal was pretty insane. To cast this you need to know the exact skill set of the person you are sealing. An oversimplified way of explaining it would be that it doesn't just blanket everything like most generic barriers do, more like all your known abilities individually. It makes it insanely hard to release the seal because most people would just assume it's a blanket seal like you just did when one would actually need individual keys to unlock each skill before you can entirely release the whole thing." In contrast to his earlier boredom, Naruto was literally jumping in place in excitement.

"But there's a downside, say you create an absolutely new skill that doesn't resemble _ANY_ of your skill set at the time of the ceremony, the seal won't apply to it. For example say the _Dios Chucos _I saw you use recently. If you create a lightning spear variant, it would be similar enough that the seal would just apply the same limits to the new skill, but if you do something new, like say; create a fire spell that explodes, that has no similarity at all to any of your previous spells, you would be a 10 year old walking around with a pyrotechnic fetish although you still won't regain your super strength because I don't think there is a replacement for something like that. That's what makes this such an effective but ironic barrier especially against people who are already so powerful and prideful that they see no reason to create new spells. But one that anyone who understands irony and has a lot of creativity and cunningness can dispel."

He stopped, as if just realizing something, "I assume that the Thousand Master was exactly someone with those traits?" he asked with a sweat drop.

Evangeline couldn't decide whether to laugh at the manic glint that she noticed usually came alight in Naruto's eyes while he was messing about with seals or his jutsus or scream at herself for overlooking such a simple loophole or bang her head at the irony Nagi had left for her. Stupid prankster, even now 15 years later he couldn't resist pranking her.

Then again the schematics weren't complete when she was looking at it, so she just decided to laugh.

Naruto sat down beside the laughing vampire, shuffling a sheaf of papers in his hand, "It isn't that easy though. It's a 9 layer barrier to be exact, that's why it was named _'Scholar's Hell'_ I suppose. The first is a matrix that powers the whole thing, the second is the one that stops you from leaving, and the third _is _a standard failsafe blanket limiter. I disabled the third and fourth by overriding them with the runes in the bracelet, the fourth one is a companion seal matrix that defines all your abilities. The fourth and the remaining 5 were the ones I didn't have time to touch."

Naruto scratched his head, "They basically have an identical layout that defines the primary power limits in implements, like the first layer reduces 20%, the second layer 20% and so on. But the seals used as the level increases, gets exponentially difficult to override. Best case scenario, if I were to override the whole thing, which by the way would take more than a few months to crack, you would have to start wearing a suit of armour whenever you want to leave the Academy and have access to all your powers at the same time, at least until I can find a more viable method"

By the time he had finished explaining, Evangeline felt like she had lost whatever strength she had left and was leaning into his side. Having a seal that didn't sound possible to completely break explained to her and add to that a tiring training session where she hadn't been able to drink any blood yet caused the small vampire to feel inexplicably tired and dejected.

Naruto waited for a while, expecting to hear a response, when he didn't get it, he peeked down and saw the dejected pose. Sighing he twisted around and picked the vampire up and plonked her on his lap, "It'll be alright. Even if it won't be anytime soon, you know it isn't impossible to completely leave this place in the future."

"Ye-yeah, I guess. I was just hoping it would be soon." The vampire leaned back, "I'm a bit tired, can I have some of your blood? I didn't get any from Negi because of all those girls interrupting us." she asked in a small voice.

Naruto smirked, "What did I say you had to do if you wanted blood from me?"

Evangeline rolled her eyes even though she knew the blonde wouldn't see it, "Can I please have some of your blood Onii-san?" she asked in an exaggeratedly cute accent.

Once she was done drinking, she thought about something, "I keep seeing you messing about with my seal, what about your problem? I mean you started all this because of that right?" a short flash of... something Evangeline couldnt identify flashed across Naruto's face but it was gone before she could make anything of it.

Naruto pondered the question for a while, "You know how a door lock works right?"

Evangeline knitted her eyebrows in confusion at the non-sequitur, "Yeah? What about it?"

"A lock has a lot of tumblers, the key that fits that particular lock has grooves that correspond to each tumbler right?"

"Yeeaah?" Evangeline drawled out, still not getting it.

"Basically, every few years the wards are updated and integrated for efficiency. Your seal was the last one to be included; so we can consider it as the first tumbler. I need to crack this, then another 23 seals before I can get to mine." Seeing her concerned face, he waved it off, "Don't worry about it; it's like dominoes, once I get the first one cracked, I can circumvent the rest easily since the integration caused all of them to be in related in one way or another. Once I get there, I can finally see what the heck is wrong. _Then_ I start to do something about it." He said with firm resolve.

Evangeline laughed softly at his confidence before they heard a voice floating down the stairs talking about "Juice."

Evangeline's eyes went wide, "Hey! Don't touch that! That juice isn't for minors!" she quickly scrambled up the stairs leaving a smiling Naruto behind as he followed her at a slower pace.

******Broken Faith******

That night, Naruto and Evangeline sat at the top of the tower with his back to the tallest spire in the resort, Akako resting on her customary spot on his shoulder, sipping some of Evangeline's _juice _in a traditional sake dish, while moon watching. Even if the full moon was fake, it still cast a very beautiful light on his surroundings that gave everything a mystical and peaceful atmosphere.

Below him he could still hear the sounds of Negi's training, causing him to smile in remembrance of when he used to sneak out and train at night as well.

"You not going to stop him from training himself to death?" he asked his drinking companion.

"Hmph, let him do what he wants, it's not like I'm his keeper." Evangeline replied, but Naruto noticed a small blush on her face as she watched the boy.

"Heeeh…. So you're the kind that likes honest pure hardworking boys eh?" Naruto leered at her.

"Bu-Wha? N-no!" It's the sake! It's the Sake!"

"Riiiight," Naruto drawled out with an amused smile. "The sake also made you conveniently forget that you can control this place perfectly right?"

"Huh?"

"Forget as in, forget to tell Negi that you don't exactly need to suck his blood to replenish your magic~" Naruto said in a sing song tone.

Evangeline felt embarrassment heat her cheeks at being caught so easily, and tried to protest, but no matter what she said, it couldn't erase the knowing smirk from the taller blonde's face. Desperately trying to change the topic to avoid the oncoming teasing, the small vampire looked around, "Look, Asuna is down there!"

Naruto perked up, "Oh? What's she doing up so late?"

Naruto watched the two of them talk before kneeling down on some magic array, while unnoticed to him, Eva had quietly slipped away, hoping that she'd get away before Naruto remembered to tease her again.

"What's that their doing, Eva? Some sort of ceremony?" he looked behind him only to find an empty roof.

"Where'd that vampire go?" he asked no one in particular, "Eh, whatever."

The blonde leaped down from the roof, curious about what Asuna and Negi were doing.

"Asuna? Chibi?" he got no reaction from the two stationary teenagers, "Oi? Are you two alright? You're scaring me."

"Kinpatsu-sama!" Naruto's head swivelled around, looking for the source of the voice and found the rodent standing by his feet.

Gesturing at the two motionless teenagers, "What's up with these two? They alright?"

Chamo nodded, "This is a memory transferring magic circle. Aniki wanted to show Asune-nee san the reason why he tries so hard."

A manic glint appeared in Naruto's eyes, magic like this always fascinated him and finding ways to emulate the spells gave him even more pleasure. Some spells like the 'Dios Chucos' he had referred to in his conversation with Evangeline earlier, were somewhat easier to reproduce. Simple manipulation of chakra before adding an element.

The only difference was the magnitude of the spell, but that was easily solved. Mostly by overpowering the shit out of the jutsu. Crude but effective. Especially since he didn't have many Jutsus with an Area of Effect in his arsenal.

He still remembered Eva's disbelieving eyes when he shot a modified 'Dios Chucos' right back at her after seeing it once.

Magic like the one before him though, presented a bigger challenge. Using the physical as a medium, the spell somehow connected the mental selves of the casters. He assumed the magical array acted as a stabilizer. Since everybody's mind worked in different ways, the array would probably provide a neutral ground where personal signals were translated into whatever it used as the common language so that two very different minds could connect.

But if he could modify the array for other things…. a universal adaptor so to speak…. hehehe…..

Chamo sweat dropped seeing the suddenly perversely giggling blonde who happened to be inspecting the array and almost salivating. "Wa-wait! Don't touch either of them!"

A flash of light signified Chamo's warning was too late as Naruto's unconscious body slumped to the floor. "Oh damn, Aniki isn't going to be happy."

**A few minutes earlier**

Evangeline stealthily left the roof, and was about to go to bed, hoping that the male blonde forgot everything by tomorrow when she noticed a dark shadow peeking out at Asuna and Negi from behind the stair case. Wondering what was so interesting, it was just a late night rendezvous between two teenagers right? She sneaked up behind Nodoka and peeked over the girl's shoulder, "Hoh? That's Mind Synchro Magic."

Nodoka squeaked in fright. "Eeek, E-e-vangeline-san?"

Evangeline gave her a spare look, "Hmm? Oh, you're the girl with the consciousness reading artefact isn't it? Perfect timing, bring it out, we can see what the bouya is showing Asuna that way."

"Eeeh…. De-de-demo, something so personal. We can't do that."

"I see…. Don't regret it when we attend Negi's wedding with Asuna in the future. You will have to sit at one side crying, only tissue papers to accompany you at night. All because you let Asuna get ahead of you, because you didn't read his mind tonight." The vampire egged the shy girl on with a sly grin.

"Eeh... So-something li-like that won't happen just because we didn't read his mind!" Nodoka tried to argue back.

"Heh? Are you sure? Don't you know knowing the past of the boy you like will you the advantage? You want to let Asuna who is already ahead of you in the race for the bouya's heart win because you were too shy?"

"Uguuu…. O-ok…. Ju-just this once."

'_Hehehe, jack pot.'_

Together the three of them, including Chachazero, prepared to watch Negi's past appear on the pages of the book, but a shout of "W-wait! Don't touch either of them!" distracted them.

Evangeline looked up to see what happened and face palmed, the idiot blonde had gone an interfered with the magic, now they would probably see his past uninvited as well. She couldn't let that happen, it was a right that belonged only to him, her hand was about to slam the book close but the temptation of knowing Negi's past was too hard to resist.

'_It's alright, if I see any hint of Naruto's past come on the book, I'll stop them from watching. That idiot owes me for this.'_ The vampire reasoned with herself, and settled back down to watch the show.

"E-evangeline-san… are you sure we don't have to check on Naruto-san? He looks like he fainted."

"Pah, that idiot won't die so easily. Nothing will happen, now be quiet and let me concentrate."

******Broken Faith******

Asuna faded into sight, standing in quaint streets buried under snow. But strangely enough there was no change in temperature and the snow had no effect on her. The girl opened her eyes, "Wh-where is this?"

A disembodied voice that sounded like Negi answered her question, '_This is where I lived 6 years ago, a small village.' _

Before anything else could be said a cloak was suddenly draped over her, shocking the girl. Spinning around she saw a blushing Naruto with his eyes averted from her as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Wh-why are you here?"

Naruto sweat dropped, "Accident, serves me right for touching things without knowing what they really are."

The voice interrupted them, _'Niisan! How did you manage to get clothes in here? No one managed to do it before.'_

The fact that she had been naked slowly penetrated Asuna's brain, "Kyaaa!" she drew the cloak tightly around her, "Wh-what? You mean you were going to leave me naked?"

'_Err… well, you would have been, it's a technical thing, but I still don't know how Naruto-nii san brought clothes in!'_

"I didn't, this is a meld of our minds. In other words, mind over matter, I assumed I could will any clothes I want in here as long as my will is more powerful than the host's since I had a similar experience before, and voila, clothes. Didn't you know that?" Naruto curiously asked.

'_Errr…. I don't think any one bothered to try; they just figured it was something unavoidable… ahahaha…'_ the voice sheepishly replied.

Before anything else could be said they were interrupted by a Chibi version of Negi. Well Chibi-er, "Nee-san, what does 'Never see him again,' mean?"

Both Asuna and Naruto focused on the unfolding scene while Akako snuck over and curiously sniffed the Chibi version of Negi, lifting a paw she swiped it at Chibi Negi, only for her paw to pass completely through.

Asuna wondered where why the blonde looked so familiar. When it dawned, she chanced a glance back at Naruto, to see him uncharacteristically pale and a tic along his jaw line. Naruto clenched his fists so tightly he nearly drew blood when he realized a blonde mirror image of Akane stood before him, but he gritted his teeth to keep quiet, willing himself to listen to the story and stay in place rather than run at the mirage. The twin tailed girl lifted one hand to grip his, softly squeezing, telling him know wordlessly that she understood.

Naruto nodded in thanks before they both turned back to watch the conversation.

"Did Father move somewhere far away?"

The blonde girl smiled sadly, "Yes… I suppose that's what Death is in a way."

Chibi Negi brightened, "So then if I get in trouble, Father will fly back and help like Superman?"

The blonde girl smiled tightly to hide a troubled expression, how was one supposed to explain Death to a 4 year old? "Uh….um, yeah you could say that."

"You really are dumb aren't you!" a new voice interrupted Chibi Negi and his Onee-san.

Everyone turned to face the newcomer, a small really cute girl the same height as Chibi Negi, even the mirages, "Arara, Anya-chan, good afternoon." Negi's Onee-san greeted the newcomer cheerfully.

Akako padded over to the newcomer, for some reason the tiny fox was really interested in the small children, then again, Naruto attributed it to the fact that Akako had yet to meet any children, hence the interest.

"Humph, no one can meet the dead, you're the Thousand Master's kid and you don't even know that?"

"Th-that's not true! Father will come rescue me if I'm in trouble!" Chibi Negi argued back.

Back with the memory travellers, Asuna's grip on Naruto's hand tightened, causing Naruto to smile despite himself when he saw the expression of longing on Asuna's face. She was probably holding herself back from glomping the cute little girl, "Wh-who's that cute little girl?"

'_She's my childhood friend, Anya Concolova. She's one year older than me.' _the voice answered in a tone filled with nostalgia.

They watched as the small girl gave Chibi Negi a practice wand before the scenery blurred into a different memory where they watched Chibi Negi get ridiculed by an old timer Wizard in a pub.

Then the scene blurred a third time where they watched Negi practice spells over and over again alone after his sister left to Magic school, not giving up even after hours passed. They watched him colour with crayons, and purposely get in to trouble to entice his Father to come rescue him.

Asuna buried her face in Naruto's chest, it was all she could do to stop her tears, it was so touching but so sad at the same time. Naruto just ran his hand up and down her back to soothe her, his inscrutable face hid everything he was thinking, but the piercing gaze that never left Chibi Negi's determined face told stories. It was a face he recognized, a face of someone desperately trying to achieve something, to get recognition from someone.

When the scene changed again, a troubled expression appeared on Naruto's face. Squeezing the hand in his, he left Asuna's side and walked over to where images of demons that were attacking Negi's village melted out of the ground. Kneeling down he studied some arrays on the ground that the demon made with a very intense look on his face, only partially watching the Thousand Master's arrival from the periphery of his vision.

Once the demons were defeated, the scene suddenly skipped from the burning village to a hill overlooking the village where Chibi Negi received his Father's staff, shortly after that the scene didn't blur but Asuna and Negi's presence disappeared.

Leaving him alone with someone who was presumably the Thousand Master on a breezy hill.

Naruto cocked his head at the sudden change in the cloaked figure's presence, "I see…. a phantom remnant of the real Thousand Master that saved Negi that day as well as a block on some things that you couldn't afford to allow Negi to remember. He left you here to give me a message I suppose?"

"You are astute for someone that cannot use magic." The figure replied.

"It's not that I'm astute, my own father left something similar in me." Naruto gave a wry smile, before continuing, "What triggered this? Since Asuna and Negi aren't here anymore, I suppose this event will only happen under a set of certain circumstances? And why not tell Negi himself rather than me? A literal stranger that you do not know whether or not you can trust."

He could tell the figure was shaking his head, "I do not know if I can trust you, but Negi does, that is enough for me. If the person that he brought in here to view his memories of that night was someone he trusted fully and had the potential…to…to…"

The phantom seemed to struggle with something before giving up, "I'm sorry, My creator's magic stops me from saying it… but it is safe to say if those conditions were fulfilled, this event would come to pass. Take care of him, because I couldn't. He and his mother are my biggest failure as well as my greatest success, but if he continues on this path he stands to lose everything. That is where I failed. Please, stranger."

Naruto gazed at the phantom for the longest second; he could see slight tears of desperation running down the phantom's cheek.

He held out his hand and they shook hands. The phantom had a smile full of hope and gratitude.

The scene blurred again.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Trust You – Yuna Ito**

Eva glanced around her, somehow from two people and one doll watching the memories; it had grown to become a party of 6 sobbing girls, one gynoid, one vampire and one doll.

She doubted any of them noticed but for a split second Naruto wasn't in the picture while Asuna and Negi moved forward.

Sighing, she would ask him later and allowed the others to continue watching, enthralled as Negi outlined what happened till now.

The book went blank, everyone expected the trio to wake up when suddenly the book vibrated and became warmer before a new picture started.

A flash of blonde hair whose owner was asleep shortly being stabbed from behind.

**hana ha kaze ni yureodoru youni  
**

**ame ha daichi wo uroosu youni**

**kono sekai ha yorisoiai ikiteru noni**

Everyone gasped and Evangeline suddenly realized why the blonde had the habit of tying people that approached him while he was asleep.

**naze hito ha kizutsukeau no  
**

**naze wakare ha otozureru no**

Another set appeared, this time the blonde was alone, sitting on a swing in the shadow of a tree, people spit on him as he stood alone. The picture changed again. Periodically the blonde was beaten by people, but he laid there on the ground with a stoic face as he took it like it was something he was used to.

Dazed Evangeline felt like she was forgetting something even as she watched the train wreck unfurl in the pages of a book.

The description of the picture said he was 12, the subsequent discovery of a Demon Lord sealed inside him and finally being qualified as an adult.

**itami kanjitemo mada tsunagaru kara  
**

**shiniteru yo mata aeru to**

**I'm waiting for your love**

Setsuna and Konoka paled as they remembered the words they had heard in an alley barely months ago, although Konoka was mostly pretending to be unconscious at the time, '_In short, I'm not exactly a demon, but it gets technical enough that it doesn't matter, so __for all intents and purposes I am a half demon,' _and the red flames Naruto seemed to be able to use. That's what he meant….

Joining team 7, the first person to acknowledge him and his pink haired crush that beat him daily and their adventure in Wave as well as the Chuunin exams. His never ending efforts in trying to make friends with the two of them and gain the pink haired one's love. In the end he gained the respect of his male classmate but the pink haired one never changed in her attitude towards the blonde.

Chachamaru suddenly developed a potent dislike of that particular shade of pink. In fact, she made a reminder to shoot anything with that colour with extreme prejudice.

His male teammate's defection and the battle to bring the black haired boy back. The extreme betrayal he felt at the abandonment of the person he thought was his first friend. His promise to the pink haired girl. His training trip. His first proper conversation with a titanic fox in what looked like a sewer, which degraded into a fight anyway at the end.

**sekai no hate wo dare ga mita no  
**

**tabi no owari wo dare ga tsugeru no**

**ima ha kotae ga mienakute nagai yoru demo**

**shinjita michi wo susunde hoshii**

**sono saki ni hikari ga matsu kara**

At 13 years old, the blonde and his demon had finally learned to tolerate each other and a non violent pact was finally achieved with the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord would train him in exchange for access to his senses, to feel sunlight and the breeze again, even if it was only by proxy. Then they watched short flashes of his training trip with both a white haired man and the Demon Lord.

15 years old brought him back to his village where he finally succeeded in partially releasing the Demon Lord much to its surprise and their relationship growing to the point where the Demon Lord finally trusted him enough to show him her humanoid form. That one shocked everybody. It was a red haired version of the blonde in Negi's memories and highly resembled a matured Asuna.

Evangeline's breath hitched as Naruto's words replayed in her mind, _I knew someone like you once. Feared and hated just because she was a demon._

_Like you she was sealed but unlike you she spent 15 years in darkness, unable to even feel the sunlight, to feel the autumn breeze that she loved, her only companion was me._

The picture changed again, it showed the battles he had, another attempt to _save _someone who didn't want to be saved. Another battle to save a seemingly dead red headed boy with a weird kanji on his forehead. And most importantly a battle with someone with orange hair and the same weird eyes Naruto sometimes showed, the confession from a pale eyed girl and Naruto going berserk, literally exploding into a more primal version of the form he had used in Kyoto, except without chains. His words to the man who was more than a man before all the dead were miraculously revived. Konoha's journey to recovery began while Naruto trained.

The Demon Lord's sudden 'confession' in a field filled with Sakura trees.

That one caused all the girls to _awww_. Beating the man they liked into submission. Akane became their new role model.

War broke out while Naruto trained on a huge island with an equally huge tanned man carrying multiple swords. No one could see what he was doing other than meditating in one spot, but he was suddenly wreathed in yellow flames with the same magatama necklace Evangeline saw in Kyoto.

His argument with another big black skinned man. His resolve in going towards the frontlines to help. His charge towards the frontlines where he fought valiantly, killing pale white skinned men and zombie looking men at the age of 16. When it seemed like he was winning, a man with a masked spiral appeared, holding a knife to an older version of the black haired boy's neck.

His subsequent capture.

In his soulscape, as his physical body was laid on an altar with red energy flowing out of his prone body in some weird ceremony, the two of them dying in each other's arms, where he proposed to her in their last moments. The field was filled with dying Sakura trees as the sky above them darkened.

**kimi ga oshietekureta uta ha  
**

**ima mo kono kokoro no mannaka**

**ano yasashii koe to tomoni hiibiteiru**

**afureru kimochi no shizuku ga**

**atatakaku hoho tsutau**

**tsuyoku naru ne shinjiteru yo tsunagatteru to**

**I'm always by your side**

The description page was empty except for a few words that were printed right in the centre.

"_**Don't blame yourself, you are an intrinsically good person, there was no way you would have been able to stand by and watch as everyone died fighting to protect you and Bee. I knew the risks, I chose to help you, because that's what a wife does isn't it?" she smiled softly, "We help our husbands….. I helped because I love you Naruto…" She drew a shuddering breath, "Take this as my last gift…." A glowing orb appeared on her palm before it was thrust into his chest, "Don't forget….I love…." **_

_Naruto never heard the last word as her eyes closed for the last time._

**I love you, I trust you  
**

**kimi no tame ni nagasu namida ga**

**I love you, I trust you**

**ai wo oshietekureta donna ni kimi ga michi ni mayottemo**

**soba ni iru yo**

**I love you, I trust you  
**

**kimi no kodoku wo wakete hoshii**

**I love you, I trust you**

**hikari demo yami demo**

**I love you, I trust you**

**kanashimi demo yorokobi demo**

**I love you, I trust you**

**kimi no subete wo mamoritai**

They watched as Naruto cried over the Demon's Lord body before following her into the darkness. The next page was entirely black before Naruto awakened, brought back to life by a blonde woman in exchange for her own life.

Naruto changed, no longer bright cheerful. Instead he became forceful, brutal and utterly ruthless as he trained with a disturbing ferocity before hunting the black haired boy down like a wolf to a sheep. When he finally caught up to the raven haired boy, Naruto literally _dismantled_ him down piece by piece before pulling out his left eye, squashing it to a pulp in front of the other eye so that the image was imprinted forever in Sasuke's mind with his Sharingan before gouging out the remaining eye anyway.

Evangeline felt a shiver crawl down her spine as she tried to swallow a lump in her throat. They were nothing more than an illustration on a book, heck they weren't even aimed at her, but she could feel it. The coldness in the depths of his eyes was comparable to the coldest spell she could cast, harder than any sapphire as he _broke _his opponent, body, mind and spirit with extreme prejudice. _'You may be 700 years old and some super powerful evil mage that is able to kill me in your fully released state, but make no mistake, I'm no posturing heroic idiot, I grew up an assassin of the shadows and given a reason; I WILL **decimate** you before you have that chance.'_

If she had any lingering doubts about his ability to back up his words, they vanished like snow in a summer's heat wave. She was disturbed, because it wasn't anger in his eyes, it was pure resolve, a fact, not a promise.

Naruto dragged whatever remained of the body back to Konoha before impaling it right in the middle of Konoha. Body being the operative word since it was still arguably breathing until two hours after impalement. No one dared to pull it down, mostly because the blonde remained there and watched at the body until it stopped breathing with a terrifying intensity. Of course, the fact that whoever tried to protest anyway joined the raven haired body on a stone spike might have been a tiny factor in their decision making process. They stopped trying after the first 11 stopped twitching on their respective spikes. Funnily enough, all 11 looked like they were mere civilians. Rich ones, but still civilians.

Everyone shuddered at smile on the blonde's face as he impaled them.

With that done, he trained again with single minded intensity that was dreadful to watch before hunting down his second target. The man with the spiral mask.

Their final battle.

His masked team leader stabbing him in the back with a lightning covered hand while he was weak.

The last page was of a raining sky that was slowly being engulfed by a tree.

Setsuna and Konoka choked. He hadn't been exiled. He had been executed. Setsuna suddenly realized something. She glanced at everybody who had been present at the fight between Naruto and Fate and saw that they had come to the same conclusion as well. Evangeline noticed the glance and the unspoken question. She reluctantly nodded. And the comments Naruto and Fate had made about Death not taking him thousands of years ago and him still being alive suddenly made horrifying sense.

**I love you, I trust you  
**

**kimi no kodoku wo wakete hoshii**

**I love you, I trust you**

**hikari demo yami demo**

**I love you, I trust you**

**kanashimi demo yorokobi demo**

**I love you, I trust you**

**kimi no subete wo mamoritai**

**donna ni kimi ga machi ni mayottemo  
**

**soba ni iru yo futari dakara shinjiaeru no**

_**Hanasanaide**_

******Broken Faith******

**hana ha kaze ni yureodoru youni **- Flowers dance in the wind,

**ame ha daichi wo uroosu youni **- rain moistens the Earth…

**kono sekai ha yorisoiai ikiteru noni **- If everyone in this world want to live together,

**naze hito ha kizutsukeau no **- why do they hurt each other?

**naze wakare ha otozureru no **- Why do they separate?

**itami kanjitemo mada tsunagaru kara **- Even if you feel pain…we're tied together,

**shiniteru yo mata aeru to **- I believe we'll meet one again.

**I'm waiting for your love **- I'm waiting for your love.

**sekai no hate wo dare ga mita no **- Who has seen the world's end?

**tabi no owari wo dare ga tsugeru no **- Who informed us of the Journey's End?

**ima ha kotae ga mienakute nagai yoru demo **- I can't see the answer now, but even in long nights,

**shinjita michi wo susunde hoshii **- I hope you'll continue on the path you believe in

**sono saki ni hikari ga matsu kara **- because a light is waiting for you.

**kimi ga oshietekureta uta ha **– The song that you've taught me

**ima mo kono kokoro no mannaka **– Still lies within my heart

**ano yasashii koe to tomoni hiibiteiru - **Together with you, that tender voice resounds in my heart.

**afureru kimochi no shizuku ga **- The fragment of my overflowing emotions

**atatakaku hoho tsutau - **streak down my warm cheeks.

**tsuyoku naru ne shinjiteru yo tsunagatteru to **- I've become strong right? I believe, we're tied together.

**I'm always by your side**

**I love you, I trust you**

**kimi no tame ni nagasu namida ga **– for you I shed these tears

**I love you, I trust you**

**ai wo oshietekureta donna ni kimi ga michi ni mayottemo **– you taught me what love is, even if you got lost on the way.

**soba ni iru yo **– I'll be with you.

**I love you, I trust you  
**

**kimi no kodoku wo wakete hoshii – **I hope you'll share your loneliness with me

**I love you, I trust you**

**hikari demo yami demo **– Be it Light or Dark

**I love you, I trust you**

**kanashimi demo yorokobi demo **– Be it sadness or happiness

**I love you, I trust you**

**kimi no subete wo mamoritai **– I want to protect your everything

**donna ni kimi ga machi ni mayottemo **- Even if you get lost on your way

**soba ni iru yo futari dakara shinjiaeru no **- I'll be with you because we trust each other…

**hanasanaide **– Don't let go.

**AN : Naruto isnt literally cracking the seals, to put it in modern terms, it's more like his making custom firmware to nullify their effects and working his way through them. Like say the seal puts a + 1 limit on Evangeline, the runes he made adds a - 1 the equation, causing the grand total to be 0. In the case of the other 23 seals, he is only finding a way through the maze so to speak, he has to bypass all of them before he can customize his own seal. Only the casters of the seal have the official password to truly dispel the seal.**

**Oh and the little gory part near the bottom? Yes that was actually one of the main reasons I decided to make this M, and it was something I planned on doing since before I published this story. I hope those people who complain about this fic not being _Dark_ enough is satisfied.**

***Sniff sniff* smell that? i can smell someone crying as they read this.**


	13. The Legendary

**Broken Faith 13**

**The Bad, The Good, The Great and The Legendary.**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto as much as his screwing it up nowadays anyway, Negima belongs to Akamatsu Ken.**

**Just one little point of contention. I have received some comments regarding my spelling, "his to he's", "their to they're" etc. I would just like to say I can't help it, the stupid auto correct changes the words very often, and when I type very fast, I subconsciously know I typed it correctly so I don't make an effort to go back and change it, so they stay as mistakes. It's not just those words either, I noticed the auto correct also changed words like "Anytime to any time", "anywhere to any where", "anyway to any way" you get the gist. **

**So I ask you guys to be patient if you see stupid mistakes like those. I try my best to root them out, but the smaller stuff like his and he's are rather hard to find especially since they don't show up on the spell checker.**

**Oh….. Umm…very dark fight at the bottom. I felt the need to bath after I was done with this.**

**Soundtrack List**

Nickelback – I'd Come For You

Gundam Seed Destiny OST – Honoo No Tobira

Gurren Lagann OST – Omae no XXX deTen wo Tsuke

Cruel Angel's Thesis – Yoko Takahashi

Gundam Seed Destiny OST – Kimi Wa Boku Niteiru

******Broken Faith******

_Setsuna and Konoka choked. He hadn't been exiled. He had been executed. Setsuna suddenly realized something. She glanced at everybody who had been present at the fight between Naruto and Fate and saw they had come to the same conclusion as well. Evangeline noticed the glance and the unspoken question. She reluctantly nodded. And the comments Naruto and Fate had made about Death not taking him thousands of years ago and him still being alive suddenly made horrifying sense._

The book closed shut with a snap and the array on which Asuna and Negi were kneeling on disappeared with a glow, causing the people around it to jump slightly in shock. Most of them stared at the trio that were stirring, none of them knew exactly what to do or say. Then again what could on say after such revelations?

Asuna and Negi looked at each other, admittedly uncomfortable, before observing the blonde who had just gotten up quietly and looked in the distance with a stoic expression on his face. Everything was silent, not even Chachazero dared make a sound.

The blonde turned around, "You guys hiding behind the wall; you can come out now."

Asuna started as the girls trooped out, all of them with various expressions, some shamed, some thoughtful, but almost all had tears. They had been there? What were they doing?

Naruto asked the same questions within the confines of his thoughts but when he noticed the floating book beside Nodoka, he immediately put two and two together and his face hardened. "You were watching the memories of me and Negi?" his tone was frosty, causing more than one person to flinch.

Asuna started along with Negi, "What! You guys were watching?"

The group of girls, dolls and gynoid looked at each other, wishing for one of them to answer but no one dared. That alone answered Naruto's question. Finally Setsuna gathered enough courage to reply, seeing as no one was going to, "I-I'm sorry, we didn't know we would see your memories, we thought it was just Negi-sensei's…"

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose, this wasn't how he envisioned letting everyone know about his past. Asuna and Negi were a different matter entirely; he had chosen to let them see those very personal memories. Well more Asuna than Negi anyway. At least he hadn't shown them the more gory parts, just those that defined who he was today, and more importantly, why he acted the way he did towards Asuna. He turned his gaze at each of the girls, all of whom squirmed in place as those blue eyes took on a coldness they weren't accustomed to seeing.

The blonde kept his mouth tightly shut, if he opened it, he knew he would regret what came out of his lips, it wasn't entirely their fault, they had expected only Negi's memories, not his. Spinning around he turned to leave without a word until a desperate cry stilled his feet.

"Wait!"

He glanced over his shoulder at the person who had spoken, it was surprisingly Konoka.

"Yes?"

Konoka flinched again, this was the first time he had spoken to her in such a cold impersonal tone. She guessed this was the tone he had used when he…uh… dismantled the black haired person. Scared as she was, she forged on anyway now that she had spoken. "Ho-how, did you survive? We saw you get stabbed and…" she trailed off, having no idea how describe being stuck in a tree.

"How I was stabbed and submerged in wood, and yet I stand here today?"

Everyone silently nodded, even Negi and Asuna.

Naruto was silent for a while, contemplating whether he should answer or not. He admitted that he wanted to leave, just to spite them all but leaving them without an answer would just complicate matters later on. He took a deep breath so that he didn't say what he didn't mean to before laughing a bitter laugh. "I wasn't meant to. Under any other circumstances, being stabbed and turned into wood like that would have killed me. Ironically the only reason I didn't die was because that silver haired man stabbed me with this sword. He only meant to cause me more pain before my death but his spite was what guaranteed my survival." The blonde reached behind him and summoned the Totsuka no Tsurugi. He twirled it around, enjoying the familiar weight in his hands once again before trailing his finger along the edge. Red fluid stained the blade's edge before it was stabbed into the ground.

He caressed the undecorated gold hilt, "Despite how plain it looks, this sword isn't a normal one. Under unique circumstances its powers will activate and seal what it cuts. Doubtlessly Kakashi didn't know what it could truly do, which is why I survived, it sealed me into the tree in a state of suspended animation." He gave a bitter laugh, "It fits doesn't it? A monster cannot be allowed to die so easily without paying for its sins."

He showed them the cut he had inflicted on himself seconds earlier, it was already gone.

He took another deep breath, "If that's all, I would like to rest. It has been a …troublesome night." The blonde faded into the darkness without another word, the upright sword that was stabbed into the ground the only proof he was ever there.

Most of them wanted to rush and find the blonde, to do whatever came to mind, console him, cry with him maybe but a thin arm barred their progress. Konoka's eyes travelled up the thin arm to a small shoulder and into the pale blue eyes of Evangeline.

The vampire shook her head, "I know what most of you are thinking, you want to go to him, cry, tell him how sorry you are that his life was bad."

She breathed to stop the guilt raging in her chest, "Don't. He doesn't want your pity. It will just be an insult to him." The blonde vampire's gaze turned to the only girl that hadn't moved from her spot and continued, "I think the girl with the katana will understand what I am saying the best." before gesturing for her servants to follow her and leaving silently.

Chachamaru paused for a subdued Akako to leap into her arms before following her Master, the only thing that showed her hesitance was a last glance at the lone sword standing in the moonlight.

Everybody else just glanced at each other uneasily, before an unspoken decision was reached together. They would go to bed.

Nodoka walked silently beside Negi, before quietly stuttering, "Negi-sensei…. I'll do whatever I can to help you find your father. I promise."

Negi smiled sadly at her in thanks, all the fuss about Naruto's memories had distracted him from his own goals. His hand slipped in Nodoka's and squeezed it gently in thanks.

******Broken Faith******

Chizuru looked out at the window to see stormy skies. For some reason she felt unsettled. Shaking her head slightly to clear her uneasiness she turned to the boy at her room's dining table that was currently gorging himself on a week's worth of groceries.

The busty brunette smiled, "Are you feeling better Kotarou-kun? Can you remember what was so important to you?"

Kotarou paused from stuffing his face with a scrunched up expression, "Yeah, I feel a lot better, but I still can't remember what was so urgent. It's like my head is filled with haze." A shadow covered him causing the wolf boy to look up. He gulped whatever was in his mouth without chewing.

"Hehehe…. I see…. Looks like we have to use traditional methods after all," Chizuru said with a menacingly sweet smile and a shadow covering her eyes, while brandishing a leek in her hand. "Don't worry; you'll get your memory back very easily like this…. Eheheh…"

Kotarou gulped again.

**Outside Mahora Academy**

Two men stood in the rain, both wore trench coats, but the taller one had a fedora over a weird hairstyle and a shirt while his companion's trench coat was open, showing his muscle bound chest.

"Oi oi, you sure the guy's were supposed to attack are here? I can't feel anybody with any worthwhile power around." The shorter one asked the taller one.

"Be calm, this is the place, and the wolf boy's presence is here as well. There is no mistaking it," the older one replied, "This is the place, now let us do what we were ordered to. It has been a long time I have been home."

"Tch, only an old foggy like you would want to go home, there's nothing there for us, this world on the other hand… hehehe, so many innocents, so many people to fight and hurt."

"Enough! Keep your bloodlust under control. You can do what you want _after _this mission is over, I don't care, just don't jeopardize my way home." The taller one barked at his companion.

"Hmph, whatever."

**Back inside Evangeline's Resort**

A shadow sneaked out of the dormitories where all the rooms were held. A slight squeak from what seemed to be the fur scarf around the shadow's neck told her that their target was no longer in the resort. Nodding her head in concurrence since she couldn't sense the blonde's presence anywhere either she headed for the surface by way of the stairs.

The shadow emerged from the recessed stairway and stepped into the moon light. Everything was still; the only thing that stood out was the sword that was still thrust into the ground in the middle of the courtyard.

The shadow walked over to the sword and laid her fingers on the cold weapon before grasping the hilt and pulling it out. She cradled it like a baby and moved towards the exit of her Master's resort. Once she was outside she could see a storm raging outside. The gynoid frowned, she didn't like water and would rather avoid going out in the rain if she could. Rummaging around in the store room, she found a rain coat and draped it around her, making sure to cover Akako and the sword completely.

She ran out into the storm.

A few minutes later the rest of the people emerged from Evangeline's resort. Ku Fei stretched while Kazumi looked around for a clock. "Whoa! Look at the time! We slept a whole night in there, then spent another day and it's only been 2 hours since we went in! Magic is awesome!" the red head happily declared.

"Heh, of course, the Great Evangeline can do anything!" The vampire smugly replied.

"Can you make this heavy rain stop?" Konoka asked with a sweet smile.

"Ehh…ah…um, sorry I can't use magic here." Came the embarassed reply.

"Fufufufu… anyway, how are we supposed to go back, we only have one umbrella," the princess said while gesturing at the lone umbrella Negi was holding.

Evangeline stood at the doorway and watched the group of teenagers leave, running in the rain. After a while she glanced north towards the forest near her cottage and sighed, "You better take care of her Naruto…." She turned back in, intent on napping before her blonde head suddenly perked up and she frowned, a fleeting flare of demonic energy had flared up on her senses but it was muted by all the rain.

"I feel uneasy, something bad is going to happen tonight." She muttered to herself under her breath before closing the door.

**A few minutes earlier**

A figure wearing a raincoat ran in the rain, careful to avoid running into any trees with the bad visibility and not to jog her passenger too badly. It didn't take long for her to burst into the clearing which she had been heading towards. A lone tent sat in the clearing, battered by rain, but a single light in the tent showed her that the occupant was not asleep.

Cautiously walking up to the tent, she slipped Akako out from under her rain coat and coaxed the small fox to enter the tent alone. Akako, shielded from the rain by her pseudo mother, moved towards the tent's opening but when she sensed Chachamaru wasn't following she turned around to see the green haired gynoid had no intention of going into the tent, moving towards the gynoid, the kitsune gently bit one hand and tried to tug the gynoid towards the tent.

Chachamaru smiled sadly and shook her head before gently pushing Akako into the tent, when the fox was safe and dry, she settled into a straight backed stance, ready to wait the night out under the rain with the sword cradled in her arms.

Inside the tent, a slightly wet Akako hesitantly looked at the tent's opening again before turning to the occupant of the tent. He was just sitting in one corner, caressing a picture of some sort in his hand, seemingly ignoring the rest of the world. Akako dashed over to him, and bit his arm, trying to tug him out to her mother. Growling when it didn't work, she bit harder. That snapped the blonde out of his funk and he looked down at whatever was biting his hand, "Akako? What are you doing here?" he could also sense the gynoid standing outside.

Almost sighing in relief the tiny kitsune alternated between tugging Naruto's hand and gesturing at the entrance with her paws or snout and cries of "Okaa-san!"

Naruto only looked sadly at the small fox, he couldn't bring himself to meet Chachamaru face to face, not now that she knew what he had done in the past, and he still felt slightly upset that she had invaded his privacy like that. True it was unintentional but he couldn't help the slight resentment.

Akako finally gave up with one last harder than normal bite, anger burned in her chest and she wanted to say something to her Otou-san and his stupidity, but her jaws in this form was incapable of true speech. In her anger and desperation she failed to notice she had started to glow with a red aura, all she was thinking off was that something was wrong with her Otou-san and Okaa-san and she needed to fix it. Giving up she was going to shout at him one last time in desperation before waiting with her mother outside in the rain.

"Otou-san no Baka!"

Her jaw dropped, that… wasn't the angry yip she was expecting.

Looking down at herself, she noticed where her paws used to be were…. pale pinkish fingers and hands, looking down further; all her cute warm fur was gone to be replaced by pale pinky human skin, and small stubby toes; _Where were her cute paws and their cute pads?_ She wiggled them a bit then she looked behind her, _forget her paws, where was her cute tail!_

Wait nevermind that, she had more important things to do at the moment. Waddling up to the shocked blonde, she slapped him with her stubby hand and placed her hands on her hips like she had seen that long black furred human do. "Otou-san no Baka! Okaa-san Outside!"

"Bu-but Aka-"

"Outside!"

Naruto admitted to himself the sight of the miniature Asuna look-a-like was incredibly adorable, the sight of her frown and the hands on her hips on the other hand was incredibly scary for some reason. At least he could start buying some cute kimonos and dress her up though…

He gave an amused sigh and held his hands up in surrender, "Ok ok you win, Otou-san can't say no to you can he?"

Akako worked her jaw a bit, before giving her father a toothy proud smile.

**Play Nickelback – I'd Come For You**

Naruto wearily stood up and steeled himself before opening the tent slit to see a lonely figure standing in the rain stoically with something cradled in her arms. "Chachamaru? What are you doing standing outside, come in, it's raining like mad out here!"

The figure shook her head.

"Whatever it is, come in and tell me Chachamaru, you can't just stand out here!" the only response he got was the figure stubbornly shaking her head again.

He sighed and walked out into the rain, grasping her arm he tried to pull her in but she wouldn't budge, "Come on Chachamaru, I don't know if robots get sick, but I doubt it's good for you to stand out here in the rain."

The gynoid stubbornly refused to budge and just whispered something that was blown away by the howling wind.

"What? What did you say? I can't hear you!" the confused the blonde put his ear near her.

"I-I can't go in…. I made you angry. So I have to stay here until you forgive me." her whispered answer drifted to Naruto's ear. The sad tone was obvious.

Naruto felt a grip araound his heart tighten. He should have had listened to Akako sooner. Instead he let himself brood in self pity while ignoring the two people that had wormed themselves into his heart and left the green haired girl to stand alone in the rain. Ignoring the rain he enveloped the bedraggled figure in his arms. "I've already forgiven you." He quietly whispered to the girl.

Chachamaru dropped the sword and returned the hug tightly, burying her face into his chest. Tears of relief that she didn't know she was crying mixed in with the rain.

Naruto hugged her tighter, "You're an idiot; you didn't have to wait out here in the rain for me to forgive you. That's what guys are supposed to do, not girls." He gave a sad chuckle before caressing her cheek, "Why are you crying?"

The gynoid wiped her face with one hand and looked at the water pooling in her hand from the rain, "Is it not rain?" she asked the blonde currently holding her with an innocent tone. When she saw him shake his head negatively, she frowned slightly, "I do not know why I was crying. I'm sorry."

Naruto smiled at her, "Nothing to be sorry about, come on in, we'll get sick standing in the rain like this," He pulled the gynoid along with him to the tent.

"Ah! Wait." The green haired girl pulled free and ran towards where the sword was left in the rain before cradling it to her chest again while Naruto watched in confusion but shrugged it off.

Together they went into his tent where Naruto took off her wet rain coat before handing her a towel and a shirt of his own with an embarrassed blush and turned away from the girl before taking off his own wet clothes, "Here, take off all your wet clothes, and use this towel. You can wear the shirt for now, I don't have anything else that might fit you."

"Ah."

Chachamaru quietly stripped and changed into the overlarge shirt before sitting down quietly, it was then did she notice a newcomer. A small naked girl with fire red hair was poking at her toes in what looked like fascination.

Confusion reigned.

"Naruto?"

Said blonde looked up from his corner of the tent, "Hmm?"

"Who's that?"

Naruto looked at where the finger was pointing and chuckled. "Akako, come here." Chachamaru's eyebrow rose while the red haired child perked up and waddled into Naruto's bare chest, "Otou-san!"

Her eyebrows rose even higher. "Akako?" she questioned lowly. The child perked up again, and this time she waddled to the gynoid and hugged the green haired girl before nuzzling her, "Okaa-san!" her bewildered eyes locked on to Naruto's amused ones. Naruto smiled slightly, "Akako unlocked her shape shifting abilities because I was being stupid."

"Stupid?" Chachamaru tried to clarify with a cocked eyebrow.

Naruto scratched the back of his head with a slight blush, "I was being stupid, that's all." the blonde tried to hedge.

"I see…." The gynoid replied. They sat in silence while Chachamaru stroked the child's hair until she yawned slightly. A slight glow enveloped Akako before her form shifted again. The glow receded to show a sleeping fur ball, causing Naruto smile again, "She doesn't know how to control it yet so she'll get tired easily from using it, I'll try to teach her in the morning. Let's go to sleep for now."

The gynoid agreed and shuffled into the futon but stayed as far away from Naruto that she could with Akako in her arms. Naruto smiled sadly, before joining her in the futon.

Awkward silence filled the tent until Chachamaru spoke again, "I'm sorry."

Naruto shook his head even though Chachamaru couldn't see it, "You were never at fault, it was me. I let myself get angry over something stupid; you guys didn't even mean to see my memories."

Chachamaru shuffled closer, causing Naruto to smile, "It was just…. I'm used to being alone and hated by anyone that wasn't my wife. So being angry and leaving is sort of a knee jerk reaction since it would have been better than to hope that people would accept me and having that hope stepped on... I'm sorry it made you so sad; you shouldn't have stood out in the rain for me… I'm not worth it, just another failure and a mons-."

Cold fingers landed on his lips before he could continue. Chachamaru sensed that underneath that commanding front, for all the strength and skill that he showed everyone, this was a side of him he rarely showed anybody, after seeing his memories, she knew the reason why. She knew he was just another wounded person looking for acknowledgement.

Chachamaru shuffled closer, "Monster or not, I'm not leaving. You asked me if I was afraid of you and Akako once, the answer hasn't changed, there is no logic in it changing and you can stop trying to persuade me to change it; I believe you said it best before; 'You can quit trying to make me give up, because I'm not giving up'." The gynoid said with a small smile.

Naruto softly gripped the fingers and smiled sadly, "You say the sweetest thing in the weirdest monotone."

There was silence for awhile, "Yo-you don't like my v-voice?"

Naruto wrapped his arms around her and gently kissed the nape of her neck, "No, I like it. Don't change."

"Understood."

******Broken Faith******

Everyone that had been in Evangeline's resort finally arrived at their dorms, most of them completely soaked, "Negi-sensei, if you need anything just asked. Everyone here wants to help you as much as possible!" Kazumi cheerfully called over her shoulder as she, Haruna, Nodoka and Yue left to get a bath.

Negi, Asuna, Konoka and Setsuna were left behind, hearing a sigh from behind her Asuna turned around, "Hmm? What's wrong Negi?"

"It-it's nothing, I was hoping that since they saw my past, they would be discouraged from helping. But it only got worse, how troublesome."

Asuna conked Negi on the head, "Don't call it troublesome, you're being impolite, everyone wants to help you but calling it that only means you are scorning their good intentions. Choose another word. Like stubborn."

Behind her Konoka snorted at the interesting choice of words.

"Bu-but, those kinds of dangers really exist! I can't let them get into danger like that…. No… this just means I'll have to get stronger, so that they'll be safe even if they want to join. I swear it." He looked up from his monologue, "Ah, sorry, I have to go get ready for tomorrow's class."

The three girls watched him leave. "Sigh, I worry for that idiot, he's working himself too hard. Normally kids his age should be fooling around…."

Setsuna interjected, "Yeah… but there isn't anybody his age around us, and all of us are girls. Naruto….. isn't exactly the best role model for him."

All three girls looked at each other before sweat dropping. If there ever was an understatement, that was it.

"Ahh! So much difficult thoughts, I'll just have to get stronger to help him." Asuna finished with a shrug.

Konoka broke into the conversation, "That's right Asuna, and if he still insists on being stubborn…Fufufufufufu…. There are many methods of persuading naughty boys." Konoka trailed off with a very sweet smile and a dainty laugh that fooled no one.

Setsuna and Asuna shivered at the smile, inwardly they prayed Negi got to his senses soon, because he probably wouldn't like what Konoka had in mind. That was another thing, Konoka was different somehow lately, more…open? And less prone to behaving like a proper princess like she had been before.

And more sadistic.

Asuna blamed Naruto.

Why? She didn't know, she just knew he had something to do with it. He always did.

Setsuna looked at her watch, "Ah! It's getting late; I have to go bath before getting ready for bed. See you two soon." She left with a good bye wave.

**With the other girls**

"Ahhh… a nice hot bath always makes me feel so much better." Kazumi sighed as she soaked in the water of the bath, beside her, all the other girls agreed.

A lot of the other girls in 3-A also happened to be in the bath, "Neh, where did you guys go? I couldn't find you after dinner." Makie asked the timid librarian with the Narutaki twins bouncing behind her.

"Eh… um…. We, we were with Negi-sensei studying." Nodoka replied timidly.

"Ehhh~ you got to spend time with Negi-sensei? I'm so jealous." Makie pouted.

"Eheh, um… Mid semesters are soon, so I was preparing with Kazumi and Yue."

"Geh, don't remind me," Makie slumped into the water when Yuuna interrupted cheerfully, "But the school Festival is soon after that! That's something to look forward to isn't it?"

"Ye-yeah… hehehe."

Beside her Ako grumbled to herself as she massaged her arm, "My arm is swelling up wit hall the exercise I've doing recently, its unsightly."

Yuuna switched her attention, "Swelling? Hehehe, I know how you can keep your arm smooth and silky." The basketball player reached behind her, "With this! NuruNuru X, super slimy, honey like lotion that can make your skin as beautiful as any model's!" she declared happily.

Makie felt chills run down her back, "Eh? Bu-but I don't like slimy stuff…uguu…"

The rest of the girls crowded around Yuuna, "Ehh, really? I wanna try, I wanna try!"

Yuuna grinned, "Sure! I ordered 2 bottles from the show but for some reason they gave me 8! Come on, Makie, don't you want Negi-sensei to look at you and see a beautiful woman?"

Makie glanced down at her arm and cried anime tears, her once soft hands had slight calluses and her biceps were almost noticeable. Damn Evil Naruto. The small pink haired girl squared her shoulders, "No pain, no gain. Alright Yuuna! Hit me!"

Yuuna slapped her.

The girl stared at her in shock, "Wh-what was that for?"

"You said hit you?"

"Nuuu….. I meant give me some of that…."Makie gulped, "Slime."

She slapped some on her body as fast as possible as retreated as far as possible from Yuuna as she could to wait the slime out. Soaking in the water beside Ku Fei, she shivered, even if the water was hot, the slimy feeling was there, "Brr… when I get out of here I'm going to kick Naruto's butt."

Ku Fei perked up, remembering yesterday, or was it 1 hour ago's event. "Hmmm? You er….know Naruto-san?"

Makie shivered again, "Ye-yeah, he's teaching me how to fight," Makie looked at the water, "Is it just me, or is the water swirling around us?"

Chisame heard her words, "Hey…yeah, the w-water seems to be moving strangely….. and there's a slimy feeling…..Kyaaahh! something touched me!"

**With Negi**

Negi was running down the hallway, thoughts about getting stronger and worried about how Naruto was spinning about in his head until someone greeted him, "Good evening Negi-sensei!"

He greeted the source of the voice in return, "Ah, good evening to you too Iincho, you're dressed very beautifully tonight, are you going somewhere?"

"Ohoho, this is how I always dress, but I thank you anyway."

"Aahaha, well I'll be going see you later Iincho!"

"Fufufu, what a well mannered and polite child Negi-sensei is," Ayaka muttered as she strolled to her dorm, "In contrast with my own noisy housemates," she grumbled at the noises coming from the door to her apartment.

She was just about to open the door when it was flung open and a dark haired boy charged right out her room, and crashed headlong into the stunned blonde, "Ooof!"

Kotarou stared at the twitching body on the floor that had stopped his charge, "Wha?"

"Kyaaa! Iincho!"

**Few minutes later**

"So? What's this rude kid doing here?" a disgruntled Ayaka spoke from her seat.

"Fufufu, this is Natsumi's little brother you see…" behind Chizuru, two people gaped at the brunette's boldness, "Chi-Chizu-"

Before Natsumi could say anything else Chizuru had turned to face them with a menacingly sweet smile that Ayaka couldn't see, "He's your brother…Riiight?"

Kotarou and Natsumi clung to each other and frantically nodded.

Ayaka rubbed her temples, her frustration settled slightly, "So? What is Natsumi's brother doing here?"

"Oh my, you see…." Chizuru dabbed a few fake tears from her eyes, "You see, Natsumi's family has some…. Problems…. So the only person Kotarou could ask for help was Natsumi, such sibling love is beautiful isn't it?"

Ayaka started to get teary eyes, "Yeah, it's so beautiful!"

Behind her hand Chizuru smiled at Natsumi and Kotarou again before they could interrupt.

'Like hell I'm going to do anything with Chizuru watching me,' was the simultaneous thought that crossed both their minds.

Kotarou desperate to remove that burning gaze from him, changed the subject, "A-Anyway, who is this Obaa-san that keeps yabbering?"

Ayaka face faulted, before grabbing the boy, "Wh-Wh-Who are you calling Obaa-san! Kiii! I'M 14, JUST 14 dammit."

Chizuru watched with a quiet 'Fufufu.' behind her hands as she and Natsumi watched the two of them roll around on the ground shouting insults at each other isnt Ayaka cute when she blushes like that Natsumi?

Natsumi looked at her taller housemate weirdly, "Err..yeah…. wait that isnt the point! Shouldn't we stop them from fighting?" a vase broke from the two of them rolling around as if to punctuate Natsumi's words.

"Fufufu, why? Watching them like this is so fun."

"Crash!"

Natsumi gulped, that was Chizuru's favourite plate.

Ayaka grabbed the boy's lips and stretched them violently while Kotarou returned the favour, "Grrr you stupid uncouth little boy! You're nothing like Negi-sensei." The fingers stretching her cheeks sudenly slackened, "Eh? What you concede defeat to the great Ayaka Yukihiro? …Oi, say something. What are you looking at?" a shiver suddenly ran down her back as she felt something behind her.

Jerkily she turned around, "Um…Chizuru? Why are you smiling like that?"

She pointed at the porcelain shards on the floor in reply.

Ayaka immediately recognized them, "Hehehe….Mercy?"

**A few minutes later**

Ayaka and Kotarou sat beside each other at the dining table, both of them displaying a large lump on their heads. Chizuru's onion was fearsome indeed. Stiffly they ate silently, trying not to draw the innocently smiling Chizuru's attention anymore than necessary while Natsumi grinned. Kotarou watched the three girls eat and the way they were so familiar with each other. It caused him to smile sadly.

"Ara? Whats wrong Kotarou-kun?" Natsumi was the first to notice his expression.

"Hahah.. its nothing, its just that I never had the chance to eat like this before, I mean, where everyone is close, there is this warm feeling and everyone feels like family."

Chizuru sniffed, "Oh my, Natsumi's family must have had a lot of problems….."

"Chizu-nee!" Natsumi cried anime tears, "My family is normal! _Normal!"_

Suddenly the door bell rang.

"Ara, who could it be at this time of the night, and its raining too." Ayaka stood up, "I'll get it."

The elegant blonde strode the door before opening it slightly, "Who is it?" she looked up to see a weird old foreigner. "Hmm? Who are you?"

"Hmmhmmhmm, just an old traveller in search for beauty."

******Broken Faith******

Naruto's eyes snapped awake, there was something wrong. Glancing down at the girl nestled in his arms he saw she had also sensed the same thing he had. No surprises there, she was probably better at it than him. Reluctantly removing himself from the two of them he quickly got dressed before turning to look at the green haired girl. "I have to go, something's up." He said rather unnecessarily.

Chachamaru nodded, "I have to go to Master, she isn't weak but I can't let it get that far."

Naruto agreed readily, "Can you take Akako with you?" he glanced at the small sleeping bundle of fur nestled in her arms, "I don't want to leave her alone in the tent here and I can't bring her with me, it might get dangerous."

"Understood."

Naruto smiled at her and gave her a light peck on her cheek before running out of the tent.

Chachamaru watched him go with a hand touching her cheek before seemingly shaking the daze off and changing into her now dry housewife kimono. Gently picking up the slee[ing fox she cradled her securely in her arms before leaving.

******Broken Faith******

A red head hanging from a tree with ropes dazedly opened her eyes, "hu..huh? Wh-what is this…?"

She looked around blearily, trying to clear the confused haze from her head, "Huh? Th-this…isn't this the university festival stage?"

"Indeed it is, miss."

Asuna snapped her head up at the new voice and saw a figure shrouded in a shadows, absently she also noted another figure standing further back with a bored pose, "WH-what? Who are you?"

"Hmm… who I am doesn't matter, but as you said this is a festival stage, a fitting arena for what will happen soon." He dark figure replied.

"Wha? Whats going to happen soon? What the hell are you talking about, wait, what the hell am I even wearing?"

Wilhelm assumed the young girl had just discovered her new costume, "Ohoho, my apologies, I simply thought it was only fitting that the heroine should be properly dressed for the coming eve- Buhah!" he was cut off by a foot kicking his jaw.

"Gahhh! Not another pervert magician! Does everybody activate some stupid pervert mode when they start studying magic? And what the hell does my clothes have to do with anything!" the red headed ranted furiously.

Wilhelm ignored the outburst, "Ohoho, its good to see that Negi-san has such energetic companions."

Asuna stilled, "Wait, Companions?" she stared around frantically but the cry for help from directly behind her confirmed her fears, trying to look behind her, "What the hell are you guys doing here too? And why the hell aren't you guys wearing anything? Wait! Why are Setsuna and Chizuru here as well!"

"Maa maa, it's not fitting for a lady to curse to much Asuna-chan," Konoka replied with a dainty laugh.

"Quit laughing dammit, and you aren't one to talk, you're practically naked!" Asuna cried at her housemate, only to get a dainty "Fufufufu," in return. She gave up trying to reason with the flaky princess and tried for another source of assistance, "Setsuna! Chizuru, you ok! Wake up dammit!"

"its no use, the swordsgirl is a dangerous opponent, so I put her to sleep, the other girl….well she interested me."

"Interested you?" Asuna gave him a weird look, "You really are a pervert with a weird fetish aren't you?"

Everybody trapped in the water bubble aside from Konoka cried anime tears; at least she was _practically _naked; they _were _NAKED. Ku Fei banged on the surprisingly sturdy water wall ("Hey, let us out Pervert Jiji!") alongside Kazumi, Nodoka and Yue while Makie stood by with wide eyes.

Asuna struggled against her bonds futilely while Wilhelm watched her, "Don't waste your energy young miss, the ropes, like the water cage that are trapping your friends can only be broken by strong magic."

Everyone glanced at Konoka who was leaning against Makie for some reason. She gave them all an innocent smile and whipped out a small practice wand but made sure the old pervert and his assistants couldn't see it.

Everyone crowded around Konoka, "Come on, let's do this, we have to get out, I refuse to be an obstacle to Negi-sensei again, especially after we promised him we'd help!" Yue urgently whispered.

Suddenly a new arrival drew everyone's attention.

"Wilhelm…. I thought it was you I sensed. It's been a while isn't it? I didn't think I would meet you so soon either."

Everyone stared in shock for various reasons.

"Naruto-sama/kun/san?"

Naruto ignored the girls, "So? It seems you have found some disturbing fetishes in my absence. So what ARE you doing here?"

"I-I…."

Everyone stared in shock as the previously confident and powerful man stuttered, "I was ordered to test the power of Negi and his companions….. We were warned about a new member in his group that was above average. When I heard that his name was Naruto…I dared not to hope…."

Naruto stared at the older man. "You have changed Wilhelm, where is the proud man I used to call a comrade? The man who stood beside Akane as her right hand man in the Demon Realm?"

Wilhelm looked at the floor in shame, "Naruto-sama….. You don't understand…. The Akuma race fell into ruin after our Lords and Ladies were sealed away. You were our last hope, but then when even you disappeared, the protections surrounding our realm failed. Many of the other nobles and I searched for you, but we lost hope…. It has been 4948 years since then…. And the once great Akuma race has become nothing more than summoned servants… no better than our Oni cousins, without the protections the Nine Demon Lords presence gave us, with the proper ceremonies, mages easily summoned us and bound our free will gone with magical chains, our realm plagued with disputes and fights for power."

Hope suddenly shined in Wilhelm's eyes, "But you have come back! You can come with me back to Makai, Naruto-sama! You can fix everything!"

Everyone was silent, the girls tried to digest the sudden influx of information while Naruto's blank face opposed Wilhelm's hopeful one.

Naruto was first to look away, "I-I can't Wilhelm…. I refused your offer the last time after Akane passed on because I had something to do, and now, I have to refuse it again, I have a promise to keep here," he glanced in the direction of the girls, "But I can hel-"

His words was cut off by the last figure who hadn't spoken until now, "Hmph, come back? Fix everything? What is there to fix? Our world is perfect as it is, so much carnage, we can fight all we want….. and even if he did come back, what can this wishy washy blonde do?" the figure stepped into the light, showing a black haired, muscular male with tight trousers, boots and a black trench coat that was open to the world.

The newcomer continued, "I can't believe this is the Dai Youkai you spoke off Wilhelm, his just another squishy human, I'd rather die than live under his rule. And I intend on making sure that doesn't happen, as per my orders of course." The black haired man charged, laughing insanely.

"Wait! Dietrich! No!"

The newcomer identified as Dietrich ignored the order and continued his charge at the stoic blonde who just watched him come nearer impassively.

"Naruto! Get out of the way!" Asuna yelled but suddenly the reason why he didn't bother to move became obvious as a huge beam of yellow lightning and green cutting winds lanced directly at Dietrich and Wilhelm. Dietrich jumped away while Wilhelmina only raised his hand with something in it that completely blocked the incoming beam. Behind him, Asuna jerked helplessly in her bonds as pain and pleasure alike lanced through her body.

"Tch, dammit. Who was that?"

Two small figures landed beside the impassive blonde, causing him to smirk, "You're late Negi."

"Sorry nii-san, my passenger wouldn't wake up."

"Hey!"

Naruto looked at the small red head out of the periphery of his vision, "You would still call me nii-san? Even after watching my memories?"

Negi gave a small grin, "You watched mine as well. We were both stupid. End of story."

"Indeed." He turned back to Wilhelm and a look passed between the two of them.

Wilhelm lowered the brim of his hat, the look he had received had given him his answer, 'This is what I'm here for, Wilhelm; this is what I protect. Years ago, I failed to protect your Queen. This is my atonement…And my reward. To watch and nurture the next generation.' And his reply to Naruto, 'Very well… I accept your request, but instead I ask for your forgiveness for what will happen next.'

Naruto smiled at his answer before glancing at Negi again, "They threaten your students Negi, what is your response?"

Negi went stony, "Let's kick ass."

Naruto quirked his lips, "Kick ass indeed, take your pick and show us how much you have grown."

Negi charged at Wilhelm while Kotarou hesitated, wondering what he should do until a voice cut into his musings, "Go help Negi. He is unused to the subtleties of teamwork, each time he fought before he has always fought alone, while in practice his companion was always more powerful than him, which in turn becomes a crutch. Working with someone similar to his own age and level of power ought to broaden his horizons."

He looked at the blonde who had spoken and was about to argue until those blue eyes cut into him and his words died in his throat, not knowing why he had the sudden need to be submissive; he pushed the urge aside and followed Negi into battle silently.

He turned to look at his opponent who was seething at being ignored and tensed his muscles; his priority was to get the girls to safety.

Naruto charged forward.

**Play Gundam Seed Destiny OST – Honoo no Tobira**

**With Negi**

Negi charged forward, a silent and delayed spell hidden in his left arm but before he could reach the passive old man he was jumped on by three small girls that grew tentacles to restrict him, "Wha?"

"Negi! Duck!"

Doing as the voice ordered he ducked, allowing a foot to sail over his head and smash into one of the girl's face. It didn't work since she immediately dissolved into water but it was enough for Negi to move his left arm, slamming it into the ground he released the spell, "_Fulguratio Albicans!"_ by shooting it into the ground, rather than a spear of white lightning, a cage of lightning instead appeared around Negi, shocking the remaining two girls that held on to him. Both of them immediately retreated but a fist hit Negi's head, "What the hell are you doing idiot? You shocked me as well!"

"Ah…hehehe, sorry… Wait, what are you doing here? Fall back; you already lost once to the old man!"

Kotarou blanched at the reminder, "Wha-what? Come on I lost because I couldn't use my Wolf Spirits! And you're just a mage! You can't beat that guy with a one on one fight!"

While the two of them were arguing the three water demons regrouped and healed themselves before charging into the fray again, Pudding wrapped around their feet unnoticed while her sisters kicked the two of them away with great force"

Both of them slammed into the stands, "Guhh….. How can such a small body hit so hard?" Kotarou grumbled, "Its your fault, you should have just stayed back! You even lost to me before, you'll just get in the way!" A dazed Negi shot at the equally dazed wolf boy.

Before they could start arguing again, the three sisters attacked them again, Kotarou immediately deflected one kick before bashing the small girl away from him, behind him Negi parried two punches, twisted their arms before stepping into their guard, gripping the limbs tightly and slammed both of them together before flinging both of them into the air where Kotarou was waiting with an axe kick.

Kotarou landed beside Negi and took a deep breath. He glanced at the boy beside him, "Heh, so you do have some skills, that wasn't too bad."

Negi smirked, "Same to you,"

Both of them watched the three girls get up, seemingly completely unharmed, "What are they? They don't seem hurt at all!" Negi asked frantically.

"Tch, their slimes, physical attacks don't work very well against them, but magic attacks, especially lightning or ice ones work pretty well."

"Hmm…. Can you buy me some time?"

"Can you say yes?"

"Yes."

Kotarou charged before splitting his body into three while Negi moved to a better position and chanted under his breath.

Kotarou's clone attacked each of them separately, preventing from using their superior team work, but unnoticed to the three sisters, the wolf boy was herding them into a straight line, they only realized it too late when another "_Fulguratio Albicans" _speared through all three of them before heading to its main target, Wilhelm.

The old demon raised an eyebrow before raising that same hand he had earlier to nullify the attack with a bright flash, only to feel two hands grab the hair by the side of his heads and pull his face into a knee strike while somebody else landed blow after blow on his abdomen. He lashed his leg out to kick the second offender before he tried to break the grip on his hair only to fail as another delayed spell, this one a _"Flans Carcer Venti Vertentis"_

His limbs snapped to his sides and he was completely immobilized but before anything could be done about it, Negi used the _Demon Sealing Bottle_ and was blinded by the subsequent bright flash from the bottle. At the same time he heard a "Kyaaa!" from behind him, "Wha-what?" he spun around to see what made Asuna shout like that, but a sudden bright explosion behind stopped him in his tracks as the _Demon Sealing Bottle_ backfired.

Negi dropped to his knees, "Gah! What was th-"

A loud laugh stopped his words, "Not bad, not bad at all young Master. Has Naruto-sama been teaching you a lot?"

'Na-Naruto-sama?' "Wait! Why aren't you sealed? What happened?"

The old man lifted one hand to show a necklace, "This is an experimental artefact that was given to me to use in this fight, in particular to see if it was possible utilize the young Miss's peculiar Magic nullifying abilities, I am sad to say it worked. Now.. I can see that you have indeed improved a lot compared to the information given to me, I'll have to step this up, please accept my apologies."

"Wha- what apologie-" He was cut off when the old man disappeared and reappeared behind him with a cry of "_Demon Fist!"_

"Gwaaah!"

Kotarou and Negi were both blown away by the force of the punch, but did not sustain any major damage due to their barriers, Kotarou struggled on his knees beside Negi, "What the hell? That was insane! Whoa! Incoming!" he dodged another Demon Fist beam.

"Tch, what can we do Kotarou-kun?" Negi said as both of them danced around the attacks.

"Erm….. throw our strongest attacks at him like in shounen mangas and hope it does something?"

"…. I hate you…."

"Yeah yeah, go for it!" both of them started chanting under their breath while dodging as best as possible.

"Inugami Ryuu Kuu Ga!"

"Fulguratio Albicans!"

Two bright attacks exploded towards the stationary man only to slam headfirst into a barrier with no visible effect. "Dammit….. even something like that didn't work?" Kotarou grunted before looking behind him; two of the slime sisters had already healed themselves from the paralysing effects of the earlier _Fulguratio Albicans_ and were approaching them while the third had just thrown Chamo into the water bubble. In front of them the old man was casually striding towards them, "Now that I have proven that none of your magic and projectile attacks work thanks to the artefact, the only thing left is melee combat isn't it?"

"Damn… this really isn't looking good." Both of them looked at the blonde, he was busy fighting his own battle.

Negi gritted his teeth.

The two slimes jumped at them.

"Damn."

"Booom!"

**Play Gurren Lagann OST – Omae no XXX de Ten wo Tsuke**

Two lengths of pink ribbon suddenly lashed out and ensnared the two Slimes that were in mid air, "Wha?" was all they managed to get out before being jerked back and slammed into the ground violently.

"Tch, Konoka, you were so damn slow." That was Makie.

"Fufufu, gomen gomen, I was enjoying the fight too much." Konoka replied as she froze the third slime sister before throwing the chunk of ice around like a kitten would play with a toy with gusts of wind. All the while she had this small innocent smile.

"Pffft, yeah right, you've just been spending too much time with Evil Naruto-sensei, and his need to show off rubbed off on yo-Gakk! Watch where you shoot that wind!"

"Fufufufu... Ooops?"

"Makie? Konoka? What the hell?" that was everyone else except Naruto who smirked quietly.

"Konoka? Where did you get your Pactio from?" Asuna shouted.

Konoka turned around and lifted her hair to show a small sigil that seemed to be painted on the back of her neck, "Fufufu, think of it as an invisible bag."

The rest of the girls who had been confined with them were watching from behind the stage, none of them could help the fight since they were naked and Nodoka didn't have her pactio with her. Ku Fei could have helped but she was currently naked. However they still couldn't help the sleeping Chizuru and Setsuna.

Makie who was wearing some sort of outfit that seemed to be made from her ribbons to protect her modesty ran at her opponents while shouting, "What are you just standing around for Negi-sensei?" she flicked the baton in her hands and two ribbons lashed out like whips. "Aren't you supposed to be fighting? Don't you have a goal to reach? So why are you dawdling around and letting your students surpass you?"

The ribbons wrapped around the two sisters but failed to get a grip as both of them dissolved into puddles that rapidly moved at the small pink haired girl before the slimes jumped out of the puddle, one kick aimed at her head while the other tried to trip her only for the gymnast to flip and bend at a weird angle, one hand to support her weight while the rest of her body was horizontal. The kick completely missed while Makie used the momentum from the peak of her movement to stomp on the one that was trying to trip her. While the one at her feet was dazed, the pink ribbons leapt into action again at the remaining slime, this time instead of curling around the slime it wrapped the slime completely in a small ball of ribbon.

Makie grinned before slamming the ball repeatedly in the ground with a very familiar sadistic smirk. Everytime the ball hit the ground her left foot stomped on the Slime's head at her feet.

Asuna suddenly felt the urge to face palm but failed since her arms were currently tied. She looked at the blonde on the opposite side of the arena, even from here; she could see the male version of Makie's smirk on the blonde's face.

She looked back at Makie, if she didn't know any better, it looked like Makie was performing one of her Gymnastic repertoires, only everytime she landed, she landed with extra force on a puddle and everytime she gracefully swung her arms, a ball made of ribbons and currently contained a hysterically screaming girl followed. Turning her head she looked at Konoka, the princess had one hand to her mouth and was laughing this dainty "Fufufufu," while her target was being thrown about like a rag doll by gusts of wind coming from the fan in Konoka's free hand.

Forget face palm. She wanted to crack his head. He corrupted Konoka and Makie!

"Oi Konoka! What are you doing? Didn't Evil Naruto-sensei tell us not to play around?" Makie shouted at her training partner, under one foot was a completely out of it puddle while behind her was a Slime that couldn't even walk straight much less think straight enough to reform.

"Fufufu, gomen gomen, I can't help it. I love cute things and she looks soooo cute with that shocked expression frozen in ice."

Everybody sweat dropped.

"I swear to Kami I had nothing to do with that!" someone shouted from the opposite side of the arena, "She was broken when I got her!"

"Oh my, did you say something Naruto-sensei?" Konoka smiled sweetly as she brandished her fans.

"Shutting up now."

Wilhelm watched as his three subordinates were systematically taken out with ease, he couldn't help it and let loose a loud barking laughter as all of them stopped to stare at him in shock.

"Very good, very good indeed. I can see why Naruto-sama refuses to return to the Demon Realm. However, I have to apologize, it seems I have to push forward with my plans." The man charged.

"Tch, How impolite…. Not waiting for us." Konoka grumbled before swinging her fans about, sending gouts of flame and wind to cover Makie, Negi and the black haired boy.

"Ahahah, you can't blame him Konoka, his impatient now that he can play with someone as pretty as me!" Makie bantered with her partner.

"I swear to Kami she was Broken too!"

A ribbon lashed against his butt, "Oi!"

The ribbon retreated before heading for the old man with a flick of Makie's hand; instead of wrapping around him the ribbons suddenly twirled all about, blocking his line of sight. He barely managed to get out a short "Wha?" before two figures slid under the ribbons, one of them suddenly bounced up in a handstand; he received two kicks, one to the face and another to the torso while the remaining figure swept his feet out from underneath him. In mid air he was surrounded by a burst of intense fire that was barely managed to singe his clothes but before he could react, the ribbons burst through the fire and wrapped his torso up and Makie performed another rendition of her earlier body slams minus the slime.

Behind them, their ranged support noticed Asuna trying to suppress a yelp of pain, probably so that she didn't distract them, "Negi! Makie! We have to get that necklace away from Asuna or we won't be getting anywhere!"

"Understood!" Makie's ribbons uncoiled from the prone old man before she leapt forward, a gust of wind from behind enhanced her speed.

"Bah! I had enough you kids!" a red beam attacked Makie who was in mid air, the girl grit her teeth before flicking her ribbons to form a shield around her. The beam clashed against the ribbons but luckily they held although Makie was thrown into the stands where she lay prone. Unlike the rest of them the only advantage she had were the her special ribbons created by Naruto, but her body wasn't enhanced by magic, so one hit was more than enough to hurt her badly even with the strengthening he put her through.

"Makie!" Negi, and his students shouted but as they rushed towards the prone girl an large explosion distracted them from Naruto's side of the stadium, allowing a large body to suddenly flash in front of them before punching Konoka straight in the abdomen with a _'Demon Fist'_, "Guh!" the girl flew back to crash beside Asuna.

"Dammit! Don't hurt them!" Negi and Kotarou charged the old man only for the old man to evade Negi's attacks, before spinning on the spot, a _"Demon Uppercut!" _landed directly on Kotarou, causing the wolf boy to fly back before crashing high in the stands while he stomped on Negi hard enough to form a crater on the floor.

All of them struggled to get up, "Bwahahaha! Not bad, you and your companions put up a truly great fight. But it's a pity this is as far as you can go Negi."

"Wh-wha do you mean!"

"Hahaha…. You lack a proper reason to fight. Your attacks are powerful but without a resolve, without a reason to fight they cannot do anything!"

"What the hell are you blabbering about old man? I've been fighting my best since the start, saving my students are all the reason I need!"

"Ahh…. That's your motivation. But you see, wanting to 'protect'… to 'save'….those motivations cannot give you enough strength. They are weak reasons. Unlike 'Hatred', 'Vengeance', 'Anger', even taking joy in other's pain. They all give you far more strength than protecting someone ever could. Look at Kotarou, he is strong because he enjoys fighting. Compare him with that pink haired girl, she fights for you, thus she is weak."

Negi gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.

"And those aren't even the best examples, what do you know about Naruto-sama's past?"

Negi looked up in surprise, how did this man know about Naruto? He looked at the side to see a wrecked stadium, flames were everywhere but two silhouettes were visible. The blonde silhouette was standing calmly and stoically over a large demon that was blubbering to itself.

"Ah… I see by your expression you DO know about him and Akane-sama. He lost Akane-sama because he was weak. Once he lost that obstacle, he embraced his 'hatred', his 'anger'. You saw it didn't you? Look at him now. That is the result, such magnificent strength."

Everyone looked and flinched.

"Ahahahaha! I see that you did. Yes! He embraced those motivations, and he became strong, NOTHING could stop him from then on. That is what you need Negi Springfield. Otherwise all you will remain is a foot note in history, in the shadows of your father's fame."

Wilhelm's words drilled into Negi's mind, creeping into his subconscious and he found deep inside, he agreed.

Wilhelm stared at the trembling boy in front of him, "I see that what I said is not enough to make your resolution," he lifted his hat and faced the pink haired girl who was still struggling to stand up, "Maybe this will help, a demon from your past, destroying your present."

Negi stared in shock as the old man's face morphed into one that always appeared in his nightmare. The demon that took away Stan-jiji and hurt his Nekane-onee chan.

He fired a beam at Makie.

"YAAAMERROOOOOO!"

Strength and anger filled his body as he charged forward at incredible speeds that he had never reached before and slammed his fist into the demon's jaw, causing the attack to be deflected away from Makie.

"Arrrggghhhh!"

He continued his combo, every part of the demon's body that he could reach he pounded as hard as possible; the skin on his fists broke on Wilhelm's face. Negi hammered the demon as hard, as fast as he could, intent on killing the demon.

"Bwahahaha!" Wilhelm managed to choke out even under the furious onslaught, "That's it! Become angrier! More powerful, take what you want! Try to kill me as ruthlessly as possible! Taking you out at the height of your powers will be my greatest achievement!"

"Fuck, what is that idiot doing, charging in like an idiot!" Kotarou grunted as he struggled to get up.

"That's it! Come to your death!" Wilhelm charged his strongest beam at the oncoming Negi.

"DIEEEEEE!" both of them roared at each other

Ribbons suddenly wound around Negi and jerked him out of the way while a fist punched Wilhelm, causing his beam to lance out uselessly into the sky, "Wha!" they both said before the same hands grabbed both their heads and smashed them together, dazed and conked both of them crash landed on the ground.

******Broken Faith******

**Earlier with Naruto**

Naruto dashed forward straight at where Chizuru was being held before leaping away to avoid an axe kick. "Tch, so what were your orders? Attack and incapacitate me?"

"Hmph, I didn't need any, unlike that bumbling old demon all they wanted me to do was attack people in Mahora Academy, and as a reward they would allow me to rampage freely in this dimension. What a treat! So many people to hurt unlike in Makai."

Naruto ducked under a punch and bulldozed into the demon's torso with his shoulder, "I see, so you're just another adrenaline junkie that loves to fight? Let the girls go, I'll fight you as much as you want then."

Dietrich staggered back before slamming a hammer fist onto Naruto's back, "No can do, we went through a lot of trouble catching these pretty girls, it's a pain to catch them again later when I want to have fun with them."

Naruto spun around to sweep the demon of his feet before flipping along with the momentum and landing an axe kick on the demon, causing him to crash hard enough to create a crater. Once that was done he immediately ran at Chizuru again, before gritting his teeth to avoid a large block of cement that had been thrown at him from behind.

They kept it up for a while, Naruto trying to avoid confrontation, his main priority to rescue the girls while Dietrich did everything he could to stop the blonde.

"Will you stop running and fight like a man dammit?" Dietrich grunted as he landed another glancing blow to the blonde's ribs, "I don't want to fight you Dietrich, you heard Wilhelm, I know that your free will is bound!" the blonde shouted in reply.

"Gahhh! You make me so mad! Someone as weak you has the respect of an old timer and our summoner? Why? Bound? I'm not fucking bound, I want to kill, get that into your damn head."

Naruto kicked the demon back but didn't reply when he suddenly felt a flare of magic from behind and saw that Konoka had brought out a wand and was focusing an insane amount of magical power. He quietly smirked.

"Wha-what is that power? That innocent looking girl? Fuck, I'm not letting them get away." Dietrich fired a intense red beam out of his mouth at Naruto to get him out of the way before he charged at the water bubble while Naruto was distracted, only to be blocked by a sudden wall of Earth.

"_Doton : Doryuuheki_!"

"What?" a kick from behind slammed him into the wall face first. It was very solid as his broken nose attested.

Still dazed he could barely hear another shout, "_Doton : Ganban Kyu_!" as more earth walls suddenly slammed up all around him and enclosed him. What the hell? None of the intel said _ANYTHING_ about the blonde using spells, eastern or otherwise!

"_Katon : Hibashiri!"_ a gout of intense and rapid flames surrounded the earth coffin and baked it into super hard earth and everything inside it, but Naruto made sure that it was only hot enough to burn all the oxygen inside the coffin.

Behind him, he sweat dropped as he heard Konoka's words and face palmed, oh yes, he was going to give Jiraiya a handshake when they finally met, "I swear to Kami I had nothing to do with that. She was broken when I got her!" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Oh my, did you say something Naruto-sensei?"

Even if he couldn't see her, he could feel the stare burning into his back and his imagination provided the rest. Naruto gulped, "Shutting up now."

He ran at Chizuru, barely managing to stick his hand into the water and touch her shoulder before a large flare of energy erupted from behind him and a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulders before throwing him back, he landed with enough force to create a furrow on the floor. "Dammit, what the hell? That should have put you down for at least an hour!"

He got no answer, in fact, he couldn't see Dietrich anywhere until a roar from above caught his attention, the demon was falling from above like a meteor, intent on crushing him. The demon had already changed into his full demon form, big, black, and ugly just about summed him up. Rapidly forming handseals again he put a hand to his mouth and took a deep breath, _"Fuuton : Shinkyu Taigyoku!" _and spat a great ball of sharp wind at the incoming demon.

The demon slammed head first into what felt like solid air, the G-Force from his downward movements crushing him into the ball from above while the ball of wind cut into him mercilessly from below, "Gwaaaah!" the force of the attack was enough to cut even his thick hide in demon form.

Below Dietrich, the blonde was watching his opponent warily, just then he heard Makie's words causing him to smile, at least they were having fun bantering, "I swear to Kami she was broken too!" he yelled at Negi's group.

A ribbon stretched all the way from Makie to hit him. Damn, he regretted making those ribbons.

Cricking his neck after the lull in the fighting, he formed more handseals, time to put that demon down, "Raiton : Ikazuchi no Utage!" two glowing orbs formed in his hand before he smashed both his palms onto the ground, sending racing towers of electricity to where Dietrich was about to land. The resulting flash and the pained scream caused him to relax abit before running at Chizuru again.

Just as he pulled the girl out of the water another familiar roar came from behind, "Tch, dammit."

"Why are you insulting me by using only techniques to subdue! IF you won't fight like a man then die like a woman with that girl you are so desperate to save!" a great ball of youki formed at the demon's mouth triple the size of the earlier one Naruto desperately looked around, he couldn't leave, even if he jumped away with Chizuru, Setsuna was in the path of that attack. Gently placing Chizuru down, he braced himself.

"Fuck."

The resulting explosion destroyed the entire right side of the stage while fire raged.

**Play Cruel Angel's Thesis – Yoko Takahashi **

"Bwaahahah DIE YOU STUPID INSECT!" Dietrich laughed in triumph at the wreckage.

An incredible aura filled their side of the stadium causing Dietrich to gape, "Wha…what? What are you? Why won't you die?" a silhouette walked out from the flame, an unconscious Chizuru cradled in his arms bridal style, everything to the sides were destroyed, his entire top had been burnt off and he could see burns on the blonde's torso. Everything behind the blonde was unscathed.

But that wasn't what got his attention. It was the blonde's eyes and countenance. Before, they had been light hearted, almost joking albeit professional despite the situation he was in along with his classmates.

Now they were purple with concentric rings and burning. His face was cold and blank.

The blonde placed the girl in his arms near somewhere safe before gesturing the others to get her. Behind him Ku Fei dashed out from her hiding spot and grabbed Chizuru before running back to their spot.

"I really don't like it when innocents are threatened; especially when it's for some stupid reason, at least Fate was polite enough to say he didn't like doing it. Had you left it at that, I would have been happy to just fight you. Now, before you die, can you tell me your name?"

"Grrrrr! My name is none of your business!" the demon charged at the stationary blonde, a fist cocked and ready to rearrange the blonde's face, only for it to be stopped by one hand.

"You are proud of your close combat skills are you not? Very well, let's start there."

Before Dietrich could say anything, the hand that stopped his fist had grabbed one of his fingers before spinning it swiftly and violently, ordinarily, the move would have just thrown him on his back but the speed and strength at which the move was executed brought a different reaction especially since his body was too heavy.

With a series of eye watering cracks and disgusting crunching sounds, his entire fist went first. Then his forearm. Then his arm.

The entire limb looked like a grotesque drill twisting around itself with bones poking out here and there.

Dietrich roared to the heavens before cocking his other fist to retaliate only for the blonde to move his head slightly to the side, the fist rushed harmlessly at his side.

The fist lodged into the ground with a violent crash but the blonde was completely unfazed, his eyes still peering deep into the demon's, until his jaw opened wide and a bluish orb formed, 'Raiton : Gian Yari'.

A lightning spear punched completely through Dietrich's good shoulder, leaving a foot wide hole in his shoulder.

"Gwahhhh!" the demon tried to crawl away with his two useless limbs until two stone spikes suddenly pierced both his knees, pining the floundering, screaming demon to the spot.

"Had you just wanted to fight, I would have obliged, I would have given you a nice fight, then we could have all gone home, but now that I can see your heart….. I can see that all you wanted to was to cause pain and show off your superiority... and for that. You die today. My greatest strength isn't my ability to fight with flashy skills, to predict movements, to control the elements, to protect. No…. my greatest strength is the clarity of my vision…."

"And I can _**see**_ **you**…. **Dietrich Josenheim**."

A fog suddenly rolled in from nowhere, climbing up from the ground to obscure everything around the two of them. Deitrich blubbered; a dark voice whispered in his ear, "**You remember your mother don't you? She hated you…..she beat you….. all because you were the runt of the pack**."

A woman slowly formed out of the mist, _"Tch, all this years and you are still as useless as you were back then." The woman dug her hand into the hole in his shoulder._

Dietrich screamed. At the pain and at the grin on his mother's face.

Another dark voice whispered in his ear, "**Do you remember Anna? That sweet little girl? The first person you raped**?"

A small blonde girl walked out of the mist, hatred and anger burning in her eyes, _"DO you like it? You got off from raping me didn't you? The first time in your pathetic life that you felt powerful? Now how do you feel? As the one being stepped on? Being raped?"_

The pain of being penetrated and beaten surged through Dietrich's mind as the raping took place in his head, only this time he was the one being victimized by a younger version of himself.

"No….No…. Please…. Stop….. Stop!"

The voice whispered again, **"Awww? Is that all you can take? Just two? I expected better from you, it seems you can give it but you can't take it… don't worry, all bullies are like that….. I have at least another twenty lined up for you….. Do enjoy…."**

The mist receded, but the demon on the floor kept blubbering with unseeing eyes as his mind was being plagued by all his victims.

Naruto stood over the demon with a blank face, he took no joy in doing this, but people like Dietrich had to be punished, and his method was the most fitting. It was the same method he used with Chigusa, but since she was human, it was far easier to do it compared to a demon, so he had to….. _break_ him in reality before his curse could take hold.

Up in the trees Evangeline shuddered while Chachamaru had a sad look on her face. She doubted anyone had noticed, but she could see the sadness in Naruto's blank expression. Sadness that when the darkness in people that grew unchecked, the burden of stopping it fell on his shoulders. _When one fights monsters, one should be careful he doesn't become one himself_. It was no wonder Naruto always insisted he was a monster. With such power and an intrinsically good heart, he could not allow himself to stand by and watch others suffer, but at the same time, to fight others with that power…. he risked becoming just like them. He probably thought he already was one of them.

Evangeline just shuddered, the librarian's artefact never mentioned or described exactly what Naruto had done to the black haired boy, but now she knew, having just seen it firsthand. She was just happy during their spars; he would never use it on her willingly. 700 years old or not, people like her, people with traumatic pasts and secrets. They were the ones that succumbed the easiest to this particular technique. And she knew, Magia Erebea or not, she wasn't walking away from a hit without a fractured mind. How ironic that his strongest skill was so similar to her own forbidden technique.

Below with Naruto, he watched the blubbering demon stoically. Between his fits of nightmares and imaginations came clarity. He crawled to Naruto's feet and continued his frantic mumbling, "Pl-please, Please, Ki-kill me, I don't wa-want to live. I ca-cant live, KILL ME!"

"**So be it**."

He lifted one arm and summoned the Totsuka no Tsurugi, the sharp point above Dietrich's head. Said demon watched the tip of sword with fascination and hope.

He closed his eyes in almost blissful peacefulness just as it surged down but his end never came as someone tackled his executioner.

Naruto stared in shock at the girl on top of him. Or rather at the girls on top of him.

"Chachamaru? Chizuru? Wha-wha-?"

_Slap!_

"What the hell are you doing you idiot! I asked you to forgive yourself not go dig a bigger hole to bury yourself in you stupid fool."

"Chi-chizuru?"

_Smack!_

"Ow! Chachamaru! What was that for?"

"No reason. I just felt like doing it since Chizuru-san was doing it as well…..Of course it was because you were an idiot, you idiot."

Naruto chuckled, he sat up and hugged the two of them tightly, "Thanks…. I almost went too far again. Thanks for pulling me back." He whispered. He couldn't find it in himself to speak any louder.

Chizuru pulled a leek and brandished it menacingly with a very sweet smile, "Oh don't worry, you're not going anywhere if I can help it, and we're going to have a very nice talk with a cup of tea right after this mess is dealt with."

Naruto gulped, "Ahaha…. Wait is that Negi? I think he's in trouble. Talk to you later. Djane!"

Not that he could run, he had a pseudo death sentence waiting for him in the form of Chizuru and her leek.

******Broken Faith******

Makie struggled to stand up desperately, seeing Negi-sensei going berserk like that was horrible. Dammit why was she so weak? She was about to give up and cry until a firm hand helped her up. "You ok?" the owner of the hand asked as said hand started to glow green and Makie slowly started to feel better.

"Ye-yeah." She replied shakily.

"Think you can help me knock Negi out of his funk?"

She furiously wiped the remnants of her tears, "If I can't, I don't deserve to be called your student."

"Hmph, Lets go then, you get Negi. I'll deal with the Old pervert."

"Understood."

The pair of them charged forward, Makie unfurled her ribbon that was still miraculously in pristine condition and flicked the baton while her teacher leapt high into the sky, once her ribbons had got a good grip she immediately jerked her classroom teacher away from the immediate blast radius while her other teacher punched the demon before grabbing both Negi and the demon before slamming their faces together.

Eewww…. She was going to make Negi brush his teeth at least twice tonight.

All three of them landed, one on his feet, the other two on their faces.

The one on his feet strode to Negi, "Can you think clearly again?"

Negi punched the floor hard enough to create a crater, he didn't know what he was angry at, Naruto for stopping him? The demon? Himself?

"Yeah… I think so..."

Wilhelm got up and dusted his trench coat casually like nothing had happened before glancing off the side where an unconscious Dietrich was slumped on the floor.

"I see you are done with Dietrich, Naruto-sama. Did you come to fight me as well?"

Naruto stared at Wilhelm, "You really have changed Wilhelm... That speech about hatred and anger…." Naruto trailed off.

Wilhelm barked a harsh laugh, "You're one to talk Naruto-sama! Not 1 minute ago you embraced that hatred and anger towards Dietrich's actions and you nearly killed him. In fact you would have if it wasn't for those two pleasant ladies sitting there."

**Play Gundam Seed Destiny OST – Kimi Wa Boku Niteiru**

Naruto laughed to the sky before disappearing from his spot in a burst of speed. Wilhelm's eyes widened before a fist was shoved into his gut.

"I agree, I'm a complete hypocrite."

He spun and axe kicked the old man into the ground.

"Listen to me Negi. Listen to the words of a broken man. The world has many kinds of people, but everybody falls into four categories."

"The first category," he flicked the old man up from the ground with one foot before slamming his elbow onto the old man's head, causing him to smash face first into a waiting knee.

"The bad and the normal, these people, _follow what everybody else is doing or just do what they want_. People like Dietrich."

Naruto slid to the side to avoid a punch, "The second category; the good people, these people do what is right. Even if they are sacrificed in the process, all because _what they are doing is__** right**_. People like Makie, like Asuna, like Chizuru."

He grabbed the outstretched punch before spinning around in a judo move and throwing the demon onto the ground, but Wilhelm retaliated by stopping his fall and violently kicking Naruto away.

"Guh…. But Negi. one day the people in the good category will have to face a choice. It's a different choice for everybody, for some it's the question of what are they fighting for? Some ask themselves whether its worth continuing. They can run from that choice, run because of their fear or whatever but by running they will remain where they are, stationary, mediocre in relation to everybody else."

"Those who choose to face that first choice will come to a second choice. **People like me Negi**. We face that first choice and advance into the third category; those who are great. But we lacked the strength to continue and succumb to the second choice, whether it comes the form of fear, of anger, we fall into the abyss. We use that hate, that anger. _It gives us incredible power to do what is __**necessary**__."_

Naruto struggled to his feet and held his hands out with a sad smile, "But that's as far as I can go Negi, that is as far as this blood stained hands can take me. This is my limit. I can go no further."

He looked straight into Negi's eyes, at Makie's, at Asuna's, at all the girls who were there fighting alongside Negi, "But you. All of you. All of you have the potential to go even further. To achieve that last category. You have the potential, when you face that choice and you find the strength within you to overcome that anger, that fear, that hate in you. Once you overcome that anger, instead of falling into it and using it like I did, all of you will advance into the fourth category; those who are legendary. All of you will be legendary…."

"All of you have that potential, the ability to scale that wall, to achieve far greater power then I ever could. _Enough power to do what is __**right **__**AND**__ what is __**necessary**__. You have **BOTH **power and strength._ Don't mistake one for the either like I did Negi."

Naruto ducked under a punch and tripped Wilhelm before kicking him into the sky. The blonde vanished from his spot, before appearing again behind Wilhelm, _"Omote Renge!" _grabbing the old demon; they start spinning violently and slammed into the ground in front of everybody.

A figure leapt out of the dust cloud, right in front of Asuna before a swift gesture cut her free and the necklace on her neck was ripped off.

Crushing it in his hands, he looked up at everybody, "That is all a hypocrite like me can teach you. All of you can learn better from someone who isn't broken."

"Everything else….. is up to you."

They watched him leave.

******Broken Faith******

**AN : Ahh…. Thirteen chapters, more than 100k words, 120k Hits and **_**ONLY **_**239 reviews? Something isn't adding up. Oh btw, does anyone know how to get my fic listed on Tvtropes? Eheheh *blush sheepishly* it was one of my major motivations to start writing, seeing my fic listed on Tvtropes, mostly because I was searching for more information on Negima at the time. So is there any requirement? Like number of words or number of reviews before it gets on there or something?**

**Oh btw…. That little mind fuck episode was actually even gorier and darker than I published but I toned it down a bit. After I sort of almost puked when I reread it. No offense to people with abusive parents and rape victims. My most sincere apologies. Although….originally I included about 3 other people but then I noticed the word count and ehehehe…..**

**Yamero – Stop**

**Doton : Doryuuheki – Earth Style : Mud Wall.**

**Doton : Ganban Kyu – Earth Style : Bedrock Coffin**

**Katon : Hibashiri – Fire Style : Racing Fire**

**Fuuton: Shinkū Taigyoku – Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere**

**Raiton: Ikazuchi no Utage - Lightning Release: Lightning Burial ~ Banquet of Lightning**

**Raiton: Gian Yari - Lightning Style: False Darkness Spear**

**Hint : When I wrote this story, the summary was Naruto's broken faith in Humanity. In this chapter the coup de grace is revealed. I never meant or said anything about him losing his faith in HUMANITY, THE PEOPLE AROUND him in general. **

**What I meant was the humanity in him.**

**Enjoy the chapter.**


	14. Choices

**Broken Faith 14**

**Choices**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto as much as his screwing it up nowadays anyway, Negima belongs to Akamatsu Ken.**

**Hmhmhm, early update. Mostly because no job offers and the decision my family has made about my continued education in Australia. So I'll likely be free for at least another month except the occasional running around getting forms and what not. Huh…. I never knew freedom could be so torturous. There are only two things i love and hate as much as Clannad. One of them is the game Nier, the other is Persona 3. at the same time, their soundtracks are so beautiful...**

**Anyway... i dont think a lot of people will like this chapter... **

**AN 2 : Chapter 14 is rewritten. Do read it again.**

**Soundtrack List**

Nier OST – Kaine (Escape)

Nier OST – Yonah (Piano)

Nier OST - Ashes to Dreams (Aratanaru)

******Broken Faith******

_Crushing it in his hands, he looked up at everybody, "That is all a hypocrite like me can teach you. All of you can learn better from someone who isn't broken."_

"_Everything else….. is up to you."_

_They watched him leave._

**Play Nier OST – Kaine (Escape)**

Negi clenched his fist as he watched his Nii san's retreating back. Inside his heart he vowed to reach the goal that even his blonde brother had failed to achieve. Turning to the staggering old demon his resolve burned brightly before turning to his students, his comrades. No. His family. They shared a look before nodding.

Negi charged forward at the still staggering demon, "Konoka! Makie, you get rid of the other 4 demons, use that demon sealing bottle!"

Konoka and Makoe nodded before taking off to do their appointed tasks, Konoka blew more chilly wind at the two remaining slimes while Makie looked around for the bottle and snagged it with her ribbon.

Wilhelm finally shook off the hit to his head and saw his incoming opponents, "Heheh, looks like you got your resolve back." He pulled off the counterpart necklace that drew Asuna's power and crushed it as well, "No matter, even without the ability to nullify your magic you are still no match for me. Bring it on!"

"Tch, you talk too much old man," Kotarou split into clones to surround the demon, all of them with a simultaneously charged attack in their hands and fired it straight at the demon in their midst while Negi stood back and chanted a spell.

"Hmph, no matter how many spells you shoot at me it won't work," the demon stomped the ground and caused the earth to split and surround him, blocking all of Kotarou's attacks before the earth wall suddenly exploded as Wilhelm punched them, causing shards of earth to fly in all directions, dispelling all of Kotarou's clones as they were hit by the attack. A magical build up behind him suddenly caught his notice; Wilhelm spun around and saw Negi chanting, "Oh no, you don't!" the old demon ran towards Negi only for Kotarou who had been lying on the floor after being hit by a stray shard of earth to grin and stick a leg out, "Watch where you're running old man."

Wilhelm tripped right into the path of Negi's fist.

The teacher cum Mage smiled as the wolf boy positioned the demon perfectly and cocked back one fist, Wilhelm's face fell right onto the fist as Negi released the spell in the fist at the same time, _"Sattica Magica : 20 Arrows of Wind!" _and shot a _"Vinctus Aquarius!",_ the spell he kept in his other hand at the mid air demon.

The demon was thrown clear into the sky from the force of the punch and the point blank spell before being suddenly surrounded by a water bubble that completely restricted his movements, as he was sailing through the air he heard more chanting.

"Kenotetos astrapsato de temeto, Jupiter's Axe!"

A lightning type High Ancient spell struck the airborne demon. The water restraining him magnifying any damage the lightning spell did to him.

"Gwaaaaah!"

Negi dropped to his knees, panting at the magical output he had just released as the smoking body of Wilhelm fell to earth.

**Up in the tree with Evangeline and Chachamaru**

Three shadows watched the battle, "Heh, not bad. He finally managed to use that combo you were trying to teach him and he improved it as well. Any mage worth his salt can find a way to escape or block after the initial _Sattica Magica _but he closed that loophole with a restraining spell, especially one that amplifies the effect of the _Dios Tucos_. Not bad. Not bad at all. I didn't know he could use Water spells though." the shadow finished thoughtfully.

Evangeline looked on the blonde who sat on the branch beside her. He had suddenly appeared on the tree and sat down without a word after leaving the battlefield so she had followed the blonde's lead and stayed silent until Naruto saw fit to break the silence himself.

"Hmph, he didn't, but he said he didn't want to depend on Konoka alone as the sole source of healing, so he tried to branch a little. Learning a few basic water spells was the prerequisite for him to start learning healing spells. And yeah…. He did pretty well improving one of the Thousand Master's favourite combos. That much I can agree." The small vampire replied with a tone of pride as a small flush appeared on her face.

"Ah… Master is blushing."

"Hawawa! Shut up Chachamaru!"

**Back with Negi.**

The teacher stood victorious over the fallen demon; behind him were the rest of his students and Kotarou. Konoka handed the demon sealing bottle to him, but a head shake indicated it was already full and couldn't be used anymore.

Wilhelm gave a choked chuckle even as bits and pieces of his body started to dissolve, "I admit defeat. What now young Master? Dietrich originally wasn't sealed in the bottle like me and the Slimes, and now that it is full you can't seal me into it again. If you let me disappear now, I will just reform in my home country and I'll just be back to harm you and those precious to you again."

Negi watched the old man silently as the rest of his comrades left the decision to him.

"Well?" the defeated demon urged the teacher.

Negi kept his silence before chuckling. His reaction surprised everyone there.

"Wh-why are you laughing? Are you insulting me?"

Negi choked as he tried to stop his laugh, his hands shaking to show that he didn't mean Wilhelm any offense, when he finally got control of himself he smiled at the demon, causing Wilhelm to cock an eyebrow in confusion. "Thanks to your words, I finally understand something else Naruto-nii san was trying to tell me. Trying to tell all of us."

Everyone stayed silent to hear what else Negi would say, "When we were in Kyoto. No, even after that, whenever we were struggling with something, he always told us, to try harder. That if there was a wall in our path we would just have to get stronger to break that wall. And if that wall came back to stop us again? We would just get stronger to beat it back down. No matter how many times we had to do it, we'd keep doing it until it gave up."

Negi took a deep breath, "He specifically always said to get stronger, not to get more powerful, and after what he told us about being legendary and you urging me to end your life, I finally understand." He looked straight at Wilhelm with piercing eyes that were so reminiscent of another pair of blue ones.

"Feel free to come back again and fight. In fact _keep _coming back, I'll just get stronger and I won't fall to anger like nii san did. I'll get stronger and beat you down every time. I'd rather lose than gain more power instead of strength and end your life just because it was more convenient. If I can't persuade you to stop hurting people with words, I'll just have to beat it into you with my fists. Believe it."

The profound silence as everyone stared at the short red haired boy was broken by hysterical laughter. This time it came from the fallen demon. Wilhelm grinned at the boy, "And that, young master, is the right answer. Before I go, I'll give you a tip," he gestured at Konoka, "That young lady over there, she has great magical powers. If she trains them enough, she may even be able heal your villagers."

The demon completely dissolved into smoke, his last actions were to give Negi a thumbs up and a grin, "As you asked, I'll come back, then we'll have a real rematch, don't disappoint me, young master!" all that remained was the sound of his voice laughing.

**Back with Naruto, Evangeline and Chachamaru.**

Naruto felt a small smile spread on his lips as Chachamaru leaned into his side while Evangeline watched Negi with a growing blush. Chachamaru quietly saved the image of her Master blushing in a folder named _'future blackmail'_.

"Heh, remember those words Negi. Those are the words of the man you will become." He whispered into the wind before lifting one hand.

Evangeline and Chachamaru watched the outstretched hand in confusion. That confusion only heightened as they saw a spinning orb of…dust? start to form in his palm.

Naruto gently blew on the orb in his palm before letting it float onto the branch behind him. Evangeline and Chachamaru just watched the orb with confused expressions until it landed and began to expand. Chachamaru let out a small gasp as the orb solidified into the injured form of Wilhelm.

The demon opened his eyes and looked around in confusion until he saw the broad back of Naruto, "Ah…. Naruto-sama…" the demon greeted in a rather hesitant tone.

"Wilhelm." Naruto greeted in return without turning back.

Both of them stayed silent.

"I'm sorry about my words. I let my demonic nature go out of control in the heat of battle…." the demon softly spoke.

Naruto stayed silent a bit longer, "It doesn't matter anymore, not like I can say otherwise considering my position," the blonde finally spoke with a rueful smile. "Anyway, take this." He threw a small vial with a piece of paper wrapped around it, over his shoulder.

Wilhelm stretched one hand to grab the vial before looking at it, "This is?"

"I already made my decision. I can't go back with you but I can help. That vial contains some of my blood and an some instructions. Go to the imperial palace in Makai. The paper will tell you what to do with the vial. It won't be immediate, but it will strengthen the barrier enough that your race won't be at the beck and call of the mages anymore, at least until a new ruler is selected."

"You speak as if you aren't one of us Naruto-sama."

Naruto smiled, it wasn't as if Wilhelm could see it though, "I never took the ascension ritual Wilhelm, no matter how many times you pleaded with me too. Even if I'm supposed to be dead, I'm still human. A monster of a human but a human nonetheless. I was born a human, so I want to at least die a human."

Evangeline frowned at the morbid words.

Wilhelm was silent for a while, "Akane-sama would have been proud of you. Human or otherwise…. I hope to see you again, Naruto-sama."

Evangeline and Chachamaru listened quietly to the conversation before watching the demon disappear into dust once more.

Naruto looked up at the stars, "Yeah... I suppose she would…." Turning to his companions he smiled, "Come on, let's go back, it's late and we have classes tomorrow."

The two of them silently nodded before taking his hands and all of them disappeared in a yellow flash.

A few minutes later, two figures stepped out of the shadow, "Well now…. Wasn't that an interesting night?"

Her companion kept quiet, tonight was interesting indeed, so much information, "Let's go to bed Kaede, the disturbances we felt were handled without any need for us to intervene." The shorter shadow eventually spoke in a soft tone.

Kaede looked at her companion with a hint of worry, Mana was rarely so introspective but she nodded anyway.

******Broken Faith******

"Negi-sensei! Are you alright? You look tired!"

Negi smiled as his blonde student fussed over him, "I'm alright Iincho, I'm just busy preparing for mid terms."

Ayaka look at him doubtfully, "Well..if you're sure…." She left the classroom with the some of her classmates, occasionally throwing worried glances at her homeroom teacher over her shoulder.

"Ahaha…. Iincho is so nice."

"Tch, it's not that she's nice, it's just that every time you do something, you make everyone else worried, especially if you look all depressed like that." Asuna grumbled from her desk while Setunsa nodded in agreement and Konoka gave a small "Fufufu." That sent chills down his back.

Negi blushed sheepishly while rubbing his sore muscles. Most of the students who had been at the fight with Negi and Wilhelm were relaxing in class, trying to catch up in their studies, especially since they had been slacking off so much after being introduced to the oh-so-fascinating world of magic.

Naruto on the other hand was there because he was still asleep and hadn't heard the bell ring.

A figure barged into class, loudly shouting "NEGI!" the figure crashed headlong into Negi in a semi hug-punch, "What you looking so depressed for so early in the day!"

"RAMEN!" The blonde snapped awake at the loud noise before looking around blearily and going back to sleep.

Everyone sweat dropped before turning back to watch the scene at the front of the class with Negi and Kotarou.

"Ko-Kotarou?" Negi stuttered incredulously at the boy that had crashed into him.

"Hehehe, Yo!"

"Yo, my foot! What are you doing here?"

The wolf boy laughed, "I'm being released due to my good behaviour and for helping with the Wilhelm incident!"

"Really?" Negi smiled in happiness for his friend.

"Yeah! I already spoke to the warde-_smack-_Buhah!" a shoe smacked into Kotarou's face and everyone turned to look at the culprit.

A half asleep Naruto.

"Ke-keep it down-yawn-will ya? People are trying to sleeping here." The blonde mumbled in his sleep.

Asuna face palmed before smacking the blonde's head and smashing his face into the table, "It's already after school, don't sleep now! In fact don't sleep in class!"

"De-demo…Asuna-chan!" Naruto cried piteously and looked at Asuna with wide watery eyes while rubbing the lump on his head.

Konoka smiled dangerously at Naruto, "I agree with Asuna-chan here, Don't… Sleep…In…Class…"

Naruto gulped and sat up straight in his chair, "Yessss Ma'am!"

Meanwhile, Kotarou rubbed his face where the shoe hit, "Whatever, anyway, why are you looking so tired Negi?"

"Ahaha, I've just been thinking, especially after fighting with Wilhelm. I think I want to be a Magic Swordsman." Negi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"What? For real? Why so sudden?"

"Ahaha…. Well its because fighting beside Kotarou, beside Makie, Asuna and Konoka, it felt so fun. And it wouldn't feel right letting everyone fight on the frontlines while I stood back."

Kotarou punched the air and laughed loudly, "HAHAHA! Yeah! Yeah! Now you know why I like to fight, it feels good right? Men like us have to fight with our fists!"

Negi scratched his chin, "Speaking of fighting…. Naruto-nii san? I was thinking about something else too,"

Naruto cocked his head in confusion and squinted at the red head, "About what?"

"That time when you fought that…um…. 'I don't know his name' demon, your eyes and aura changed. It was so powerful, so why didn't you use that against Fate in Kyoto?"

Asuna scratched her head, "Yeah... now that he brought it up, the way you fought yesterday was like, ten times better than when you were in Kyoto, and we didn't know you could use magic either." She raised an eyebrow at the blonde in mock questioning, "Were you just fishing for sympathy?"

"Oh, I'm hurt you could think of me like that Asuna-chan~" Naruto pretended to have been hurt before leaning back in his chair and rubbing his temples. Everyone was suddenly thrown off by the sudden change in the blonde's rhythm while Evangeline raised a curious eyebrow at the conversation. Since she wasn't in Kyoto till the end, she wasn't sure what they were talking about while Konoka and Makie talked together in whispers.

Naruto considered his answer for a moment before looking at Negi, "There are a few reasons. One of which was that the seal prevents me from utilizing my full abilities outside of Mahora, even now I'm limited to about 40%."

Everyone gaped, "If that was 40% what the hell is 100%?" Chamo shouted what everyone else was thinking.

Naruto smiled at the ermine, "Don't worry about that rodent," his smile suddenly changed for a split second, "You probably won't find out." His words caused Evangeline to quirk an eyebrow at the weird choice of words.

"Anyway, bottom line, there were two main reasons I wouldn't use my powers. The first was because there too many unknown factors. First, I knew I couldn't defeat Fate in an all out battle, so my only goal was to gather information while only letting him see the barebones of my abilities. If it was only Fate present, and I knew I could…. incapacitate him…permanently, it would have been a different story but you heard what Fate said; he was working for another organization, one probably even bigger than Chigusa. Thus chances of someone observing our fights in Kyoto were too high, so I didn't want to risk too much information of my abilities reaching his superiors. In fact, the techniques I used against him, the _Asura Style, _was done on purpose, especially since I don't use them under normal circumstances at all. As you can see from the fight with Dietrich and Wilhelm using Asuna's _Magic nullifying_ abilities against you, my prediction came true. It was a good decision since they didn't have proper intel on our abilities to use against us. Revealing all my cards then would have been stupid and unnecessary, especially since I wasn't banking on winning."

Negi gaped, that kind of reasoning hadn't even passed his thoughts.

Naruto went silent and stared at the ceiling, "The second reason….is a bit more selfish. You know about my old teacher? The silver haired one with one eye patch?"

When everyone present except for Kotarou and Makie winced he gave a small smile at their reactions, "That man also had a similar ability. His eyes gave him above normal abilities and strength like mine does. The difference between us is this, while he was renowned for being a strong fighter, be it… um_ spells_ or melee combat and illusions, whenever he got into a fight, he always used that ability from the start. In fact, he was so used to using the abilities of his eyes that if someone found a way to shut down that ability, he was downright useless even if his default skills were powerful. So I promised myself I wouldn't fall in the same trap he did, I would fight without using those eyes, thereby increasing my base abilities, which in turn also increases the abilities my eyes give me should I get desperate enough to need them."

Kakashi's fight against Zabuza had been an eye opener for the blonde, he felt the reason Kakashi even won was mostly because Zabuza, being the person he was, had dragged the battle out too long and allowed Kakashi to find an opening.

And he had taken the lessons learnt in that battle to heart ever since finding out Kakashi's hidden intentions. He had been developing strategies against all major opponents in Konoha. Even against the Konoha 9 and their teachers should they choose to side against him, although the possibility was low, the risk was present but that wasn't something to be said aloud.

Naruto shrugged, "It all comes down to tactics really."

Negi and almost everyone's jaw dropped at the level of strategizing Naruto just displayed to them, even going back as far as Kyoto while Evangeline nodded approvingly.

"Ahhhh!" Kotarou furiously scratched his head, "I don't get it! What use is thinking! All you need are fists and guts!"

Naruto cut his gaze to Kotarou from his relaxed position, and seemed to be considering something. Before Kotarou knew it a suffocating aura suddenly slammed him straight into the ground as Naruto observed him with glowing purple eyes, "Thinking is useless? Do you have anything precious to you?"

Kotarou shakily nodded his head at the weird question under that penetrating gaze while everyone watched in shock. They could only feel the edges of the presence that Naruto was emanating and even then Kazumi's knees were shaking.

"Let me give you two choices. You are in a fight with me and there are only two things you can do, your fists are useless against me, your spells and charms have no effect. Your first choice, fight me and lose before I destroy everything precious to you. The second, you distract me before running away to save those precious to you and getting stronger to fight another day. Which would do? Would you let your fists and guts guide your path where everything is ultimately destroyed or would you think and save your life and the lives of everyone precious to you. Think carefully little wolf."

Kotarou's first instinct was to charge the owner of those purple eyes.

His fists clenched hard enough to draw blood as he struggled to even stand under the same aura he had felt from yesterday, only this time it was pure undiluted malice and power aimed at him. He fought harder to stand up and similarly the pressure increased to keep him down. Shakily the wolf boy shook his head and gave in, "I would… run." He croaked quietly.

Naruto stared into the boy's eyes for a while longer, everyone was silent in the suffocating aura before the blonde smiled and nodded before cutting his presence off, "Yesterday, both of you won against Wilhelm, only because you had the help of Konoka and Makie. Otherwise….." the blonde trailed off.

Everyone stared at the blonde silently, he looked so…. non-threatening…so completely normal, while casually leaning in his chair against the wall but his relaxed posture belied a very scary person.

Kotarou panted on the floor as he watched the blonde warily, when the blonde had looked into his eyes, a voice had echoed in his head, _'I know what you did in Kyoto. You tried to block Negi from rescuing Konoka. Pray to the gods that the one you fought wasn't me. Had you tried to face me with such an insignificant reason and had Konoka been hurt for it, you would not have walked away with your limbs and mind intact.'_

"In such situations where pure skill and power is not enough, brains and strategy come into play. Take for example Negi and his combo yesterday. Amplifying the power of his lightning spell with a water one was a good move, especially since most demons are resistant against human magic. Another example, Negi, remember when you fought me while I was using my pactio?"

Negi nodded quietly.

"When you have an opponent like that, someone who was restricted to long range battles, and his attacks only move in a straight line. One of the best things that you could have done was to use a simple spell to create boulders and obstacles instead of wasting your energy dodging all my shots and trying to get closer, I'm pretty sure there's a simple spell like that. In that one move you would have nullified my ability to fight effectively at range as well as impede my efforts to stay away from your own spells and close combat attacks. Once that was done, you could have taken your own sweet time to defeat me."

The blonde looked at everyone present, "Basically what I'm trying to say is that use every advantage, use both power and brains, seek balance and efficiency in your attacks, be flexible enough that you have spells for most occasions, but specialize enough that when the situation demands it, you have overpowering firepower at your command and when spells don't work, at least know how to fight with your hands and feet. Know when force is needed and be sharp enough to realize when words are more effective."

Makie and Konoka stood side by side seemingly unaffected at all and simply watched the proceedings.

The blonde got up and made to leave the classroom, as he reached the door, he left a parting shot, "Remember little wolf, wishes and hopes alone cannot move mountains but don't lose sight of the reason you were trying to move that mountain in the first place."

Everyone watched the blonde leave the classroom and all was silent until Chamo broke it and said what everybody else was thinking, "Kinpatsu-nii san is fucking scary sometimes."

Konoka simply gave a dainty "Fufufu. That may be true. But he means well even if he speaks harshly."

Asuna stared at the brunette, "Speaking off which, both of you didn't seem affected by that….whatever he calls it aura at all!" she spoke incredulously.

Makie burst into anime tears and clung to her partner, "Every time Evil Naruto-sensei made us train, he used that aura. That sadistic bastard said if we could do that, we would have learned to move in any circumstances and keep a clear mind regardless of the situation. It was so damn scary! Bwaahh!"

Konoka laughed and gently petted the pink haired girl that clung to her, "There, there…" before the vampire who had been quiet until now spoke, "He wasn't wrong you know. Yesterday when you were fighting that demon, you used your more powerful spells against him, but when they didn't work you immediately gave up that avenue. The problem was a simple one, your single target spells didn't work, but you neglected to try an area attack. Negi."

The silent red head perked up at his name, "You have a wide arsenal of skills and I know you have been practising water spells. One of the spells I know you have can call a deluge of water right?"

The teacher nodded causing the vampire to continue, "Then you could have summoned water to soak the demon and the floor before firing lightning spells at the water. The conducted lightning would have been just as effective as a normal _Fulguratio Albicans_. If even that hadn't worked, spells that threw rocks or spikes would have definitely worked. It would nullify the magic but the inertia in the rocks would hurt just as bad. Like the blonde idiot said, sometimes the battlefield is just as important as the fighters themselves. Although you would have to be careful since wolf boy might have been hit as well. But then again, I'm an evil mage, I don't care. Bwahahaha!"

Everyone sweat dropped as the laughter finally died down, "Anyway, I'm not putting down your efforts from yesterday. In fact they were exemplary, but thinking things through might have netted you the same result with less effort."

Evangeline looked at her homeroom teacher and saw the boy trembling slightly in place, thinking that he was sad at his perceived failure she hurriedly tried to rectify the situation, "Don't let it get you down so much, you are already well on your way to that level of skill. Naruto didn't mean to say it so harshly but he_ is_ worried about you. He doesn't want any of you to make the same mistakes he did. Charging in without thinking that is."

Negi raised a clenched fist and showed a wide grin as he looked at his magic teacher with resolve burning brightly in his eyes, "Heh, Don't worry about me, I'm not down. You and Naruto-nii san showed me how it could have been done better. So I'm going to improve, I'm going to get stronger so that one day I can match you and Naruto-nii san!"

Evangeline averted her face so no one could see the heat on her cheeks that rose as Negi stared at her with those resolved eyes, "Wh-who said I was worried baka! Tch, I'm getting stupider wasting my time here with you guys. Chachamaru let's go."

"Ah… Master you're blus-" Evangeline literally jumped on her taller companion and slapped her hands around her mouth to stop the gynoid's words before hissing at Chachamaru, "Don't say those things in the classroom!"

"Understood."

"Wh-whatever, let's get out of here." The smaller girl hurried to the door while her companion followed at a more sedate pace.

Once the two left the classroom Negi could hear Chachamaru's voice, "Master you're blushing, do you want me to bring Negi-sensei here so that you can feel better?"

"Dammit! Didn't I say not to talk about those things here!"

"You said not to say it in the classroom. We are no longer in the classroom."

"!#$#^!"

Negi and everyone else sweat dropped at the bickering duo.

Asuna glanced at Setsuna before both of them nodded and excused themselves from the others that remained in class. Setsuna saw the look and understood her fellow swordsgirl's intent. They needed to find somebody. Somebody that had experience in fighting if they wanted their skills to go further. The lack in their ability was especially apparent after last night's skirmish. Even though she had been asleep for the better part of it, that fact alone rubbed her the wrong way.

She had been _ASLEEP_ while Konoka was in danger. While Negi and Naruto fought. While Asuna was captured. It galled her pride something bad. And she knew Asuna was the same way. Even after teaching her the rudimentary skills of sword fighting, even though she was very good at it herself, those skills with the sword was completely useless in the fight. They needed to get stronger. And they knew who to ask. And they found him walking slowly on his way to his tent.

"Naruto!"

The blonde stopped and looked over his shoulder, one cocked eyebrow showed his confusion at being hailed, "Yo, what's wrong? Both of you are panting."

Setsuna glanced at Asuna again before both of them bowed deeply, "We want you to teach us like you have been teaching Konoka-ojou sama and Makie!"

Naruto faced them with a contemplative expression before he spoke with some slight confusion, "Why? I mean why me? The only things I could even remotely teach both of you are primarily hand to hand skills and increasing your base abilities. I can see how the latter would be useful, but both of you are use swords; I can't do anything in that field. Even Setsuna is a better fighter with a sword than I am."

"We know, but we saw how Konoka and Makie fought, we want to get better."

Naruto kept quiet for a little longer, "I didn't do anything for either of them….. I only gave them some training to sharpen their instincts and abilities. How they used their weapons, or ribbons or pactios as the case may be, was all achieved with their own effort. I only gave them some basic lessons on how to use those, and even that I got from books. Everything else was their own creativity with a little bit of advice." He shook his head, "You're looking for the wrong person to get lessons from."

Asuna set her jaw, "It doesn't matter. I know you can help us. I have faith in you."

Naruto face palmed, _I have faith in you. _Fuck those words were so unfair, especially when they came from that particular person. "Very well…. Do you really intend on sticking with what I can teach you? Even if it's not some flashy skills?"

Setsuna looked down and clenched her fists, "I was asleep. I WAS ASLEEP. The guilt I feel now because I was asleep while everyone fought, while Negi-sensei fought, when even Konoka-ojou sama fought. The guilt won't leave me, I failed her in Kyoto, and now I failed her because I was captured and put in a sleep by some slimes. I don't know what I can do, but the guilt of not being able to do anything. The guilt that my sword was useless in that situation. I don't know what to do with this anger Naruto… please help me."

Naruto sighed as he saw some tears fall down Setsuna's face and Asuna put an arm over Setsuna's shoulder. He should have known it would have affected Setsuna the worst. Her pride as a swordswoman was trampled on, the sword she put her pride and honour in had been utterly useless. But what could he do?

He ruffled the girl's hair, "Hey now, where's the strong swordswoman I know?" Setsuna sniffed a bit and smiled, "At any rate, I'll try. But I can't guarantee anything since I don't know what I can do to help you counter that weakness. Well not yet anyway, I'll think on it. Asuna…. you on the other hand…."

Asuna gulped at the glint in his eyes.

******Broken Faith******

Konoka, Negi and Asuna were running to school, "Argghh! I'm going to be late for the teacher's meeting!" behind him Konoka and Asuna trailed along, Konoka on her skates while Asuna kept up with her speed easily, "Damn you princesses. How the heck can you be so energetic? Naruto is a freaking slave driver! He kept us working even with mid terms on!" she grunted quietly at the girl beside her.

Konoka frowned, "I don't know…. He was never this urgent when he trained me and Makie." The princess shrugged, "But you'll get used to it. The trick is to use the pactio to enhance your strength and keep up with Naruto-sensei but slowly wean yourself off the strength boost as time passes." Konoka said with a small smile. "In that regard, Makie surpassed all of us because she is completely normal, she complained true, but she stuck to it and now, among everyone of our skill levels and strength, I can safely say that the one person I don't want to fight is her. If I fought Setsuna, I can confidently say I can outlast her as long as neither of us uses Magic or Ki."

Asuna glanced at Konoka, "Is she really that strong? Naruto hasn't allowed us to spar with each other yet. And when you and Makie do, he won't let us watch."

Konoka shrugged and made a face, "It's not that she's strong per say, it's the way she fights. It's very similar to Naruto-sensei's in that it's incredibly irritating and misdirecting, the fact that her ribbons are enhanced so that you can't burn them… or cut them… is really…..annoying."

Asuna sweat dropped at the dark aura that her best friend suddenly developed as the brunette started giggling in a disturbing manner while plotting how to destroy Maki-chan's ribbons.

Konoka put one finger at her chin thoughtfully and the aura suddenly disappeared, "Anyway, Naruto-sensei once argued with Makie about her ribbons. At the time he commented that with her flexibility, balance and ability to discern her opponent's rhythm, had she used a sword she would have been even better at it compared to Setsuna but Naruto refused to let her use one. On the other hand, she didn't want to use her ribbon because it was something so 'useless' and flimsy in her own words."

**Flashback **

"No swords Chibi Pink."

"Bu-but, it's a ribbon, how am I supposed to be powerful with a freaking ribbon! It's useless and flimsy!"

Naruto sighed and sat beside the small girl before lifting her small hands in his own, "Look at these hands Makie," the girl perked up, this was the first time Evil Naruto had used her name.

"Can you truly bring yourself to hurt? To stain these hands with blood? Because that's what a sword is capable of, even if you use it to protect, it will hurt someone sooner or later. With it, you limit yourself because what you are used to using is not a sword, it is the ribbon. You can go far with a sword Makie, but if you use a ribbon, you can go even further. Your purpose in training with me is not to hurt, it's so that you can go with Negi wherever he wants to go. For that reason, the ribbon will be your best choice. If you couple your flexibility and grace with the ribbon, I can confidently say you have the potential to be a very strong fighter. Your purpose Makie is to fight to protect. To win without drawing blood. To subdue. You are a pure girl Makie, don't change it just because something is flashy looking. Out of everyone else here, you are the only one that can do that."

Makie looked at Naruto, rarely had she seen the blonde so serious.

The small girl set her jaw, "Alright…. I'll use the ribbon."

Naruto smiled, "Good. Besides it suits you. It may look completely flimsy and worthless, but it's energetic, dazzling and completely irritating."

"Evil Naruto-sensei!"

**End Flashback**

Asuna looked thoughtful, "Heh, that idiot can say some good things sometimes. But it kinda galls me that he has so much faith in Makie compared to us."

Konoka just laughed, "It's not that he doesn't have faith in us, everyone else has our own specialty and ability. Look at the way he trains you and Setsuna, he focuses even more on both of you because the two of you have the potential to branch out in other fields. Me? I just get endurance training. Although I know he regrets it because he can't train me in anything else since I'm focusing on my mage skills and he can't help me with that. With Makie, I think it's just because Naruto sees himself the most in Makie. Everyone else has more than one side, different facets so to speak. But when you look at Makie, you know there is no other side. What you are seeing is what you will get."

Asuna just kept quiet at her housemate's words, she knew it was true, but she couldn't help the slight burn of jealousy that settled in her stomach. "Oh yeah, speaking of facets, has Naruto been looking different lately to you?"

Konoka chewed her bottom lip and replied hesitantly, "Slightly, he's been a bit distant lately. Like his thinking about something."

Asuna scratched her head furiously, if even Konoka couldn't figure out, she had no hope, "Aahhh! So complicated things so early in the morning is bad for the health! Run! Run!"

Konoka smiled at her best friend as she sped up to catch up to Negi who was speaking to Kotarou and Chizuru.

They caught up just as Chizuru smushed Kotarou into her chest and said she would take care of Kotarou in lieu of his missing parents.

"Cu-cut that out Chizuru-onee chan! You're embarrassing me!" Kotarou protested, only for Chizuru to smile menacingly at Kotarou, "Ara? You don't want me to take care of you?"

"Nononono, I want you to do it, yes I'll be a good boy!" Kotarou hurriedly replied.

Konoka laughed with a dainty at Kotarou's actions, "Fufufu."

Asuna glanced at Konoka and Chizuru who were standing side by side and sweat dropped, "You two are scary similar sometimes."

The two of them looked at each other and smiled menacingly at Asuna, causing her to gulp, turning quickly to Negi she tried to ignore the two demons behind her that started to giggle.

"Lo-look at that parade Negi, all of them are so weirdly dressed!" Negi and Asuna watched the parade of many interestingly dressed people and and many different contraptions walked past them, "Wooo…. Look at all those. The senior at college are working pretty hard to make the Mahora Festival one of the best." Asuna commented. Just then a commotion drew their attention, when they looked they saw a figure flying about from hoop to hoop in a fantastic gravity defying stunt of acrobatics.

"Woow…."

Suddenly the figure dropped out of the sky, "Gah! Watch out!" Negi almost brought out his staff to save the figure but it simply landed gracefully without any injuries. Dressed in a entertainer's outfit was Zazie Rainyday of their class, "Za-Zazie-san!"

Said classmate simply held out a few pieces of paper that seemed to be tickets, she smiled and spoke in a soft and gentle voice, "Here are tickets to the Nightmare Circus. Please visit us sometime, Ok?"

Negi took the tickets with a shaky "Thank you," before Zazie leapt back onto her hoops as Asuna watched stunned from beside him, "Sh-she spoke! I never heard her speak before!"

"Fufufu, you shouldn't be so impolite Asuna-san, she has her own reasons."

Asuna gulped as a chill ran down her back at the motherly voice, "Ha-hai!"

Soon the group walked to class, all of them laughing and watching as the rest of the students bustled and cheerfully worked together to make the Festival a success.

Just as Negi opened the door with the rest of the girls in tow a spurt of blood flew across everybody's line of sight in slow motion.

Asuna's jaw dropped, "Wha-what was that! Was that blood?"

The source of the blood spurt was lying on the floor with a goofy smile as the reason for the blood greeted Negi and his entourage. Everybody watched as Ayaka, Kazumi, Misa, Madoka and Sakurako were wearing revealing maid outfits. "Welcome to 3-A's Maid Café Ensemble!"

Behind the group who were all watching with open mouths, Chizuru nudged Naruto with a dainty foot as a sniggering fox clambered up her shoulder and watched her nudge the prone blonde with a foot. She lifted the fox of her shoulder before scratching the fox between her ears with a small smile, "Naruto's such a naughty boy isn't he?" she cooed to the purring fox who nodded with a grin. For a moment Chizuru widened one eye to the fox's reaction but continued like nothing happened.

"Wha-whats going on?" Negi shouted as his brain tried to process the scenery.

Ayaka replied, "Ohoho, I don't know what a Maid Café is, but if everyone wants custom made uniforms I can gladly help~"

"Eeeeh?"

Behind Ayaka, Yuuna and Haruna rubbed their hands together and conspired to take advantage of Ayaka.

"Negi-sensei! Come, you'll be our first customer for us to practise on, girls change~"

As Negi watched the girls danced around in bunny suits and maid outfits with a dazed expression, another spurt of blood appeared like a fountain in the background. Chao in her revealing Cheongsam bent down beside the blonde and grinned before poking his side. But the fountain of blood didn't stop as the girls kept changing into more and more sexy outfits. Even sexy kunoichi were no match for this!

Mana smirked at the blonde in her miko outfit as the blood slowly drained from the blonde on the floor. She would charge him double later for the special viewing while Setsuna blushed deeply in a school swimsuit and her hair let down.

"Ka-kawaiii…."

The last sentence that was breathed out by the blonde on the floor caused her blush to burn even brighter before Naruto finally succumbed into blessed unconsciousness.

**Later that Evening**

"Gurgh… I don't know whether to thank or beat Nitta-sensei up for stopping all the girls from doing…. Whatever they had planned…. Luckily they only managed to get my top off."

An ermine leapt onto the dejected blonde's shoulder, "There there, I know how you feel Kinpatsu-nii san!" looking around he whispered to the blonde, "Don't worry, I took pictures.

Naruto looked at the ermine before looking around furtively. When he saw that no one was paying attention, money and pictures exchanged hands under the table before both of them flashed each other a thumbs up and a cheesy grin.

A beautiful friendship was born that day.

Chamo went off while Naruto went back to his tent.

He went straight to his next business deal.

Leaping onto Konoka's shoulder he grinned at the girl, "Neh, neh, Konoka-onee san, I got some good pictures to sell. He flashed a few pictures at Konoka.

Konoka lifted on hand and laughed a dainty, "Fufufu," to cover the fact that she had developed a slight nose bleed.

Money and pictures exchanged hands again.

"Ko-konoka-ojou sama!" Setsuna watched in disbelief.

At least she was in disbelief until Konoka showed the pictures she had just bought. Pictures of an unconscious Naruto being stripped by Chizuru-san with a laughing fox in the background and more pictures of an unconscious Naruto in full butler suit, behind him, the girls were trying to fit a struggling Negi into another butler suit. Naruto had been wrong, they hadn't only got his top off, they were putting his original uniform back on before he woke up.

Then she just fainted with a nose bleed.

"Fufufufu, I knew you wouldn't disagree."

Asuna came up behind her, "What are you laughing about Konoka? Wait, why is Setsuna unconscious?"

"Fufufufu, blood loss. Don't worry its only temporary."

"Guuh…. What just hit me?" Setsuna stirred on the floor, when she saw the wink Konoka gave her from behind Asuna, she blushed like a light bulb again.

**With Naruto**

The blonde walked back to his tent and was surprised to see that someone was already home. Standing outside he hesitated for a while, he didn't know how to tell the gynoid about his plans but he couldn't walk away now because he knew that she had most likely already sensed him, and he had already been avoiding her most of the week.

The blonde shifted the opening to find a scene that warmed his heart.

Chachamaru was kneeling by one side of the tent with a cutely yawning red headed girl sitting on her lap. The both of them had apparently just bathed and Chachamaru was drying Akako's hair.

Dropping his stuff by a side of the tent he moved to sit beside the green haired girl before moving her into _his _lap. She let out an adorable squeak as warm hands encircled her waist and lifted her up on to the blonde before the same hands started to dry her own hair. "Na-naruto!"

"Hmmm?" Naruto just gave a non committal reply as he focused on drying the soft green hair.

"I-I can do that myself!" the gynoid protested.

Naruto smiled, "Yeah I know…. But I wanted to do this…." _At least once._

The girl gave up and concentrated on the small yawning Akako but the hands that occasionally brushed against her neck and back was very….distracting.

******Broken Faith******

"Heart Pumping Swimsuit Extravaganza Café!"

"No no! Girl's Mud Wrestling Tea Shop!"

"Neko Mimi Nudebar!" _What the fk? Underage nudebar?_

_Spurt. Shit I'm being corrupted. No loli, no loli. NO LOLI._

"Fufufu, Why not we just do a pantyless tea shop?" _Ah…. Chizuru_…_when it comes from you it doesn't even sound like a joke…._

_Spurt Spurt Spurt_

"Hawawa~ Nii-san! I don't know what all these terms mean! I feel like I'm missing something!" Nodoka and Fumika cried anime tears beside Negi as they agreed. Negi clung to the blonde's back until the blonde turned around with a serene look of one who had achieved enlightenment on his face.

"Ahh… don't worry Negi, you'll understand in a few years. It is something every man must go through."

Negi, Nodoka and Fumika slowly backed away from the blonde.

The serene look and words were completely spoiled by the rather impressive river of blood flowing down his nose.

"Negi?"

"Eerr yeah?" the classroom teacher who was still backing away said.

"When I die from this nosebleed, please take care of Akako…"

They were interrupted.

"No! That's not enough! Maid café's and cute girls are so cliché! We must do something new!" Haruna grinned at her only male classmate and teacher, "And since we are the only class with two guys…. Ehehehehe…."

"Shit. Negi start running."

"What? Why? And why aren't you running?"

"I'm sacrificing myself to save your purity! Nippl- I mean Nippon Banzai!"

**Later that evening**

Naruto and Negi were slumped face down into the counter at Chao Bao Zi. "Today….was a long day…."

Negi only received a grunt.

"The girls tried to strip me…"

Another grunt.

"I'm corrupted…."

"Corrupted? What about me? They _tried_ to strip you. They _stripped _me and tried to make me walk around campus topless without my underwear, the only thing they let me wear was my pants and a bow tie! I was nearly raped! I swear Chachamaru groped my ass."

"Why didn't you just do that scary eye thing? You could have saved us both without Nitta-sensei interfering!"

"Take my word for it; no matter what I did we were going to lose. You ever try fighting against that many rabid girls at the same time? It's a sucker bet."

Negi gave up trying to argue and they both just thanked the gods for Nitta-sensei.

Naruto glanced at the clock, "Ah damn, I gotta go pick up Akako, you wanna come Negi?"

"I think I'll stay here a bit longer Naruto-nii san. See you tomorrow."

The next day Naruto would find out Negi was the kind of drunk that cried his eyes out.

The blonde strolled away in the direction of the child care centre. While Akako was fully content with being carried around in fox form, Naruto wanted her to socialize more and had enrolled her in the day care centre, much to her protests at first.

Walking through the door of the cheerily painted building he knocked softly on the counter to get someone's attention.

"Oh my, Naruto-san?"

Naruto's head snapped up at the unexpected voice, "Chizuru-san?"

"Arara… didn't I tell you no honorifics?"

'_You didn't but I'm not dumb enough to argue.'_ Instead Naruto cleared his throat, "Aahaha… I forgot I guess. Anyway I'm here to pick someone up."

Chizuru raised one eyebrow in slight surprise, "You have someone here? This _is _a child's day care centre you know…. Oh my…. Did you get someone pregnant?" Chizuru covered her mouth with one hand and feigned fear, "You're such a pervert…. Who was the mother?"

Naruto frantically shook his head , "Nononono! I didn't get anyone pregnant. I adopted her."

Chizuru immediately dropped the teasing, "Oh my…. I'm sorry if I came across as insensitive… Her? As in a girl?"

The blonde smiled softly in reply, "Yeah… a precious daughter. Anyway can you show me where is she?"

The auburn haired girl led the blonde into the back where they found kids playing. Or at least... Akako was playing. Playing mock wrestling while the other girls watched in horror that is. Akako was proudly grinning with one foot resting on a pile of boys that she had presumably 'wrestled' into unconsciousness.

Naruto face palmed, now he knew what Konoka kept whispering to the little fox, while Chizuru giggled, "Oh my… precious daughter indeed. If I didn't know she was adopted I would have thought she was your real daughter."

"Chizuru…."

******Broken Faith******

"Naruto-nii san! They're talking about some ghosts in Mahora!"

Naruto looked up from his texts, "Yeah, good luck and have fun he waved them off and continued on his way home."

"I-is something wrong with Naruto-nii san? He's been weird lately. And he's been rushing home early as well." Negi asked the two girls with him. Konoka and Asuna looked at each other and shrugged. "Maybe he's just busy?"

"Yea-yeah… I guess."

Evangeline showed up behind them, "He isn't going home."

"Gyahh! Don't appear just like Evangeline-sensei! And what do you mean? Where is he going?"

Evangeline scratched her cheek thoughtfully, "You know how he said that a seal restricts his power by more than half?"

The trio looked at each other and nodded in response, Evangeline nodded in satisfaction, "Yeah, he has been going deep down into Library Island to where a section of the World Tree's roots are visible. He seems to be messing around with the seals or something."

"I-I see… in that case everything is fine isn't it?" Asuna asked hesitantly.

Negi looked uneasily at the World Tree in the distance, "Yeah I guess, Naruto-nii san knows how to deal with stuff like this. When he's ready he'll tell us about it."

The three of them were distracted from their conversation by their classmates that were preparing to hunt a ghost.

******Broken Faith******

A silhouette roared as he threw element after element, attack after attack of his arsenal at a barrier made of seals, trying to exhaust himself. The shadow finally stopped his barrage before punching the wall one last time in frustration. "More… I need to reduce more power! Dammit!"

The silhouette set his jaw before proceeding to throw everything at the wall he had erected.

******Broken Faith******

**Later that night**

Naruto slowly walked into his classroom. When he had gone back to his tent he had found Chachamaru and Akako already there, and since he didn't know how to face them with a smile he retreated somewhere else.

Sitting down in his chair he stared out into the utter darkness and pinched the bridge of his nose.

He felt so tired.

Bringing out his flute he started to play

**Play Nier OST – Yonah (Piano)**

The sound of someone sobbing reached his ears and he lifted the flute away and looked around confusedly, "Ano…. Is anyone there?"

"Bwahhhh! That was so beautiful!"

Naruto cocked one confused eyebrow before activating his Rinnegan to see a small pale girl sobbing on the ground beside him, "Um…. Can I help you?"

The girl sniffed, "Yo-you can see me?"

Naruto knelt beside what he assumed was a ghost, "Yeah, what are you doing here?"

"Sniff sniff, I'm Sayo Aisaka, Seat 1 of 3-A."

The blonde smiled at the girl, "So you're the ghost Negi was talking about earlier huh?"

The slight girl nodded, "Ca-can you play that song again? It…It made me feel like I was alive again, like I was warm again…"

Naruto smiled before agreeing and lifted the flute back to his lips while he sat beside the ghost.

When he was done the ghost was crying softly again before she tried to hug him but simply barrelled through his body.

The girl fell on the floor and remained there, sniffing slightly, "I-I can't touch anything. It's so lonely…"

Naruto smiled with touch of sadness before holding his hands out, "I can't help you touch again, but I can make you feel warm again."

Sayo gasped as her body started to glow before slowly dissolving.

The blonde held the glowing blue orb he held in his palms before thrusting it into his chest.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Nier OST - Ashes to Dreams (Aratanaru) **

"Ah… good morning everyone." Chachamaru greeted Negi-sensei, Konoka, Asuna, Setsuna and Naruto with a soft smile.

"Naruto? Are you ok? You look tired." Naruto smiled at the gynoid, she had been too busy lately to come over to the tent, and when she did he almost always wasn't in. if she waited, he wouldn't show up at all like yesterday. "Yeah, I'm alright, I just have some things on my mind. Speaking of which, you look beautiful today." One hand almost reached up to caress a strand of her hair but Naruto suppressed the urge desperately.

"Ah….. I'm sorry I have to go." The gynoid blushed at the compliment before hurrying away.

"Did…I say something wrong?" the blonde asked his brother with a cocked head only to get a shrug in reply while the rest of the girls face palmed.

Suddenly the blonde dashed forward just in time to wrap one arm around Chachamaru who had almost tripped and another to steady her load of dishes, "You alright?" he asked her with a concerned tone.

Chachamaru averted her eyes, "Yes. I'm very sorry for being a nuisance." The gynoid hurried off again.

As the rest of them sat down to eat Naruto just shook his head before leaving again.

Negi and the gang all looked at each other with confusion etched onto their faces before watching the leaving Naruto. Behind them Chachamaru stared at the leaving blonde with a weird expression before almost tripping again because she hadn't been paying attention to where she had been going.

"Chachamaru!"

"Ah…Hakase. How are you?" the gynoid greeted her creator.

"Good, wait that's not the point! You can't tie up your hair like that! Why would you do something like that? You'll overheat you know?"

"Ah…." A flashback to the blonde calling her beautiful passed in her memory and the words slipped out without her knowing it, "I just wanted to be called beautiful."

"Wha?"

******Broken Faith******

Later that evening after running away from Hakase who was intent on checking her memory drives, Chachamaru sat down under the World Tree. She had tried to find Naruto, she didn't know why, she just felt like being in his presence after that fiasco but she couldn't find the blonde anywhere. The gynoid stared out into the distance, even as her Master watched from above in the shadows of the leaves.

Evangeline gritted her teeth. Something was wrong with the blonde and she intended on finding out what.

**With Naruto**

"Arara… what brings you down here of all places? Shouldn't an old man like you have better places to go rather than stay here with another old man with all your free time?"

Naruto looked up from the scenery. He had been sitting on the edge of a cliff and enjoying the scenery of all the waterfalls. "Shut it Chicken man. I don't want to hear people calling me old, especially from you."

The cowled man laughed slightly, "Chicken Man? All I did was ask you to call me Colonel Sanders." He nudged Naruto with his foot causing the blonde to slip off his perch."

"Aaah! If you're angry about the name say it dammit, don't just kick people off cliffs!"

"Arara, oops. My old man joints were acting up..."

Naruto grumbled under his breath and clambered up the cliff, "Damn old man. You really are angry aren't you?"

"Ohoho, I don't know what you're talking about jiji. So? What really brings you to this place of solitude?"

Naruto stared at the man, "You're just angry my presence stopped you from fapping off to pictures of Evangeline," Naruto shot back with a grin.

Both of them stared at each other before laughing at the banter for a while.

Naruto leaned back on a rock and looked up at the sky, "It's nothing. I just hit a block with the seals on the World Tree, that's all."

"Oh? Then why the melancholy?"

Naruto smiled sadly at Albiero, "Neh, Albireo, if you were going to die, what would you do?"

"What!"

Both of them jerked up at the sudden voice, "Eva-chan? What are you doing here?"

Evangeline stomped up to the blonde before kicking him off the cliff again.

"Gwaahhhhh!"

"Ohohoho."

Once a sopping wet Naruto had climbed back up he sat as far away from the edge of the cliff as he could, "What the hell is with people and cliffs today? The blonde grumbled under his breath and pulled his wet bangs out of his eyes. So? What brings you here as well?"

"Damn you, don't change the subject, explain what you were saying! Is that the reason you have been distant to everyone lately? Have you even seen how Chachamaru is acting because of you lately?"

Naruto fell on his back and looked up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes, "I'm sorry I was busy…." He pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly, "It's just that I miscalculated something. It's rather ironic now that I think about it. I attributed my survival that day to my sword. At the same time, this sword is what's keeping me here permanently. Long story short, shortly before the fight with Wilhelm I finally made the breakthrough to the last seal. After I reached it, I've been trying to circumvent it all this time."

Evangeline snapped her fingers, "So that's why you've been so weird and busy lately!"

The blonde smiled, "Yeah," the blonde pulled the sword out of the seal and caressed it slightly. "I said before the sword isn't normal and under certain circumstances it will seal the thing that it cuts didn't I? The problem here is, the sword is literally a divine artefact granted to me." He looked up at Evangeline and Albireo, "That being said, the seal it makes are also divine level seals made to contain powerful beings. There is nothing I can do to break or even circumvent it since I am only mortal, the only way to lift it would be for the creator for the seal, in this case, a person long dead, to lift it willingly. Hence the only thing I can do if I want freedom is to wait for my own core to overpower the seal, and since my core is combined with my wife's who was a being that was almost on par with the divine herself, overpowering this seal is something inevitable." He touched the slight cracks along the blade, "See these? This is proof that my power is slowly forcing its way out and the seal can only contain so much and it only cracks faster each time I draw on her power."

Evangeline cocked her head in confusion, "So what's the problem! That's a good thing right? You just have to wait for freedom and keep using that youki you have! So what is this about dying!"

Naruto smiled sadly at her and Albiero, "When the blade finally breaks, the fail safe will activate since the seal was broken in a way it wasn't meant to. It comes down to a choice between limiting myself on purpose to avoid breaking the seal or everybody will die with me in the blast radius when the sword and I self destruct."

Naruto shook his head in frustration, "But there is no sure fire way of limiting myself forever, especially if I reach the limit and draw more power for some reason or other or lose my temper like I did with Dietrich. Sooner or later I _**have**__ to _die."

Evangeline looked at the tired blonde in horror as the pieces of the puzzle fell together. The reason he had been distancing himself from everyone.

******Broken Faith******

AN : =)


	15. Mahora Fest Begins

**Broken Faith 15**

**Mahora Fest Begins**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto as much as his screwing it up nowadays anyway, Negima belongs to Akamatsu Ken.**

**I have rewritten chapter 14 because I wasn't satisfied with it, feel free to go check it out. What I wanted to do with the middle part of chapter 14 was meant to show him gradually distancing himself from the rest of 3-A but as one of my reviewers said, it was rather patchy, so I asked him what would make it work better and voila. Thank you AznPuffyHair. Yes I'm asian and yes my hair gets puffy during the wet season. Anyway, I felt the same and rewrote certain parts of it to better show what I wanted.**

**SoundTrack List**

Gundam Seed OST – Kimi wa Boku Niteiru

Fiction Junction Yuuka – Honoo no Tobira

******Broken Faith******

Konoemon stared at the blonde in front of him in shock, "I see….. this is… very disturbing."

The blonde smiled in reply, "Don't worry. I won't let it come down to that."

"Oh? You have a plan?"

The blonde gave the old man a lopsided grin.

**Play Gundam Seed OST – Kimi wa Boku Niteiru**

**Flashback**

_Naruto shook his head in frustration, "But there is no sure fire way of limiting myself forever, especially if I reach the limit and draw more power for some reason or other or lose my temper like I did with Dietrich. Sooner or later I _**_have _**_to __die."_

_Evangeline looked at the tired blonde in horror as the pieces of the puzzle fell together. The reason he had been distancing himself from everyone._

_Words failed her as her mouth open and closed like a fish out of water. Clenching her jaw she forced her wits to get back in line before growling her words out, "How long?"_

_Naruto who was still on his back replied, "I'm not sure. The sword and seal has been absorbing my power for nearly 5000 years if Wilhelm was right. Its capacity is incredible so I have no idea what is the limit, 10 years, 5 years, 3 months, I don't know. The only reliable way to measure it is through the cracks on the sword."_

_The sounds of footsteps walking away reached his ears and Naruto sat up in confusion to see Evangeline stomping away._

"_Wha? Where you going Eva-ch-"_

"_SHUT! UP!" Evangeline pivoted and instinctively hurled an ice javelin at the blonde to shut his mouth. The javelin missed the blonde by inches but she wasn't paying attention. She was staring at the hand that had somehow manifested a spell that shouldn't have worked in shock. _

_The idiot had managed to lift the seal._

_Then it all fell into place, and Evangeline growled, "You fucking bastard. You've been planning this ever since that night where you showed the red head and the boy your memories haven't you? Even though you said you hadn't reached your own seal."_

_The rueful grin told her enough._

"_All those words during the fight with Wilhelm, the harsh way you keep pushing everyone to be better, shoving lessons and tactics down their throats. Showing them your memories, you planned all those knowing you wouldn't be around; you wanted to use yourself as an object lesson. You fucking bastard, you already gave up on finding a way out didn't you?"'_

_The blonde shook his head, "What was I supposed to do Eva-cha-" he was stopped as another javelin stopped just short of piercing his neck, the other end of the javelin was being held by a pissed Evangeline with flashing eyes._

"_Don't. Fucking. Call. Me. Eva-chan. Only one person can call me that, and he isn't you. My nii-sama was a complete bastard, but he was a talented bastard. He was as flawed as he was talented but that only made him human. Even through his flaws he refused to give up. The magnificent bastard that he is, could achieve in 3 months what I couldn't in 15 years, and when he did, the smug bastard would have danced up to me and give me a smug smirk before saying 'I told you so,'. Not quietly leave some damn present for me to find while he went off to die alone. Even if he was going to die, he wouldn't distance himself from his friends and use some stupidly noble excuse about not wanting to hurt them when he left to hide the fact that he's just afraid of dying with regrets. The fact that he is going to die doesn't make a difference because I don't see the other 6 billion humans that are about to die as well act like cowards." _

"_No, he wouldn't run away, even if Kami herself told him he was going to die, the bastard would just smile at her before giving her the middle finger and waltzing off. He's the kind of bastard that just won't die like a cockroach." She bit out slowly as if talking to a child._

_The small vampire took a deep breath after her rant and continued, "My nii-sama wasn't a fucking coward. And a fucking coward like you isn't my nii-sama so You. Don't. Get. To. Call. Me. Eva-chan. Geddit?"_

_The small vampire spun and around and continued to stomp away when she was stopped by someone hugging her from behind._

_She struggled to get away from him until she heard him whisper, "Thanks…. I needed that wake up kick Eva-chan."_

_Evangeline stopped struggling and stilled for a moment before leaning back with a wry grin. Her nii sama was back._

"_And for the record? I happen to know who my parents were, I'm an orphan not a bastard."_

_Evangeline snorted. Typical of the bastard to be more worried about being called one rather than dying._

"_Oh and I noticed you willingly called me your nii-sama." She knew he was grinning. She could feel it._

_Evangeline futilely struggled in his arms while blushing furiously, "I did __**not! **__Let me go!" but when the arms didn't remove themselves she took desperate measures._

_Desperate measures meaning she slammed her elbow back into the blonde. And considering her height compared to his, she was very satisfied to leave the blonde face down in the ground eating dirt while clutching his family jewels._

_**End Flashback**_

"No, but I don't plan on giving up either."

Konoemon grinned back in reply, "Very well. I leave it up to you. Oh by the way? You owe me 9 million yen for that stadium."

Naruto left with a wave over his shoulders, "Make it 10 million and one hell of a good festival."

"Understood."

******Broken Faith******

The blonde grinned at the 4 girls standing at attention in front of him, "Alright, give me 20 laps, usual weights please."

All four of them looked at each other before Asuna spoke, "Err…. Naruto.. you alright? 20 laps? Usually you force us to do 50."

His grin widened, "Alright, since Asuna has seen fit to protest my kindness, do 70 laps."

"GEEEEEHHH?"

Setsuna smacked the back of Asuna's head.

**Hours later**

"Asuna…*pant* yo-you bitch." A pile of pink hair mumbled at the pile of red hair beside her, "Go*pant gomen..."

Naruto chuckled before separating into 4, 3 clones and the original, each one took a girl with him to another part of the clearing and erected barriers so none of them could see what everyone else was doing.

**With Setsuna**

"Setsuna, like I said I don't know what I can teach you. So the only thing I think I can do to help you is sharpen your instincts to the maximum."

The girl nodded with resolve, "Good, up till now, everything I've done with you is endurance training. Now that your body has developed the foundation needed, we can go forward. First, wear this blindfold." Setsuna stared at the black cloth Naruto handed to her and she looked dubiously at the grinning blonde before reluctantly tying it on.

As soon as her vision was blocked she was immediately punched in the gut, "Wha-what? Naruto-sensei?"

She got no reply and just barely ducked another attack, the air pressure from the attack brushing her neck. Setsuna gulped. That attack to the neck would have put her down for at least a day if it hit.

The bastard was serious.

Immediately ducking into a reactionary stance she waited for the next attack.

They continued back and forth and Setsuna soon lost track of time since she couldn't see anything, the only way she could keep time was by the number of bruises she was slowly accumulating

A few hours later of dodging and occasionally attacking back, Setsuna smiled she was getting the hang of this.

Naturally she regretted that statement as soon as it appeared in her mind as the presence she had felt aimed at Kotarou flooded the clearing and the swordsgirl struggled to breathe. Although she admitted to herself that she had an easier time of it because this time the presence was diluted, aimed at no one in particular. It was simply there, menacing and dangerous.

As soon as the presence hit, she staggered and was immediately punched in the gut. The girl flew back and smacked into the barrier before coughing up some blood.

"Once you can sufficiently move and act under this kind of pressure I will teach you how to use this ability. In almost any Master level fight, both sides will always be using their presence almost unconsciously. It won't do anything but slow your opponent by a fraction of a second if they are on your level but when it comes down to it, every little bit will matter. What you will be learning….is how to take advantage of that split second."

Setsuna staggered up as the voice rang out in the clearing and shakily nodded but her shaky stance belied her attitude. Setsuna was grinning. If this was the level she could achieve then bring it on, then she realized something.

"Eh? Wait," Setsuna pulled off her blindfold, "What do you mean it won't do anything but slow them down?"

"Hmm? It's an intimidation tactic. Fear grips your opponents, slowing their moves and dulls their blades."

Setsuna scrunched her eyebrows in thought, "Bu-but when you used it on Kotarou and that demon they practically smashed their own faces in the floor!"

"Oh….err… Ahahaha…" Naruto laughed sheepishly while scratching the back of his head as Setsuna gave him a puzzled look, "It's… a parlour trick." The blonde admitted sheepishly.

When he saw that Setsuna didn't get it, Naruto tried to clarify, "You remember my eyes activated at the same time?"

Setsuna nodded her head dubiously, "Heheh, since you're going to be a front line fighter, I suppose you're going to need to understand something. But it'll be our secret alright?" the blonde winked saucily at the girl.

Setsuna simply nodded since she was too busy trying to hide her blush and words seemed to fail her.

"Basically it's a combination of two things. The first, being my natural presence intimidating my target. And the other is one of the powers my eyes. My eyes give me the ability to control vectors. The predecessor of these eyes, despite being powerful and well intentioned, was admittedly arrogant and complacent and thus never took the time to explore its true potential. He thought it was simply the power to control gravity and was happy with the ability to push and pull but it was something more. You understand gravity? A force that pulls objects downwards, or more accurately to the centre of the earth?"

Setsuna nodded wide eyed, "Gravity, Air resistance, Inertia, they are all sub categories of what I consider Force. Or Vectors. Direction and Magnitude. While he was only capable of pushing and pulling, I improved it to push, pull, up, down, etc. Long story short, take an apple falling from the tree. It falls because the downward force acting on it is greater than whatever force is holding it up, say inertia. With my eyes activated I can increase the upwards force to match the gravity. In other words?"

Setsuna gaped, "The apple would float!"

"Good girl. So with that in mind, I simply increased the gravity and smashed Kotarou as well as Dietrich down, I never explicitly said that was the result of my presence. Everybody drew their own conclusion. Generally small stuff like that, I can do without techniques, just minor chakra manipulation, but the big stuff like pulling a dragon out of the air requires a real technique." Naruto scratched his chin in thought, "There are other applications; for instance when I need to hit something really hard, I am capable of either amplifying the forward inertia of my attacks or reducing the reaction force of my target to a point where even a finger flick can be lethal. I usually don't use anything more than that, it would take a lot of power but had I really wanted to I can completely incapacitate any enemy simply by _looking_ at them. But then there wouldn't be any fun left in battles hehehe…."

Setsuna sweat dropped at the nonchalant way the blonde said he preferred to get his hands dirty.

"Basically I just use it when I want to be flashy, intimidating and really impressive looking. Parlour trick? Yes. But sometimes intimidation can mean the difference between war and peace. As a front line fighter, muscles and skill isn't everything, little tricks like that are important as well. Understood?"

"Hai, Naruto-sensei!"

"Good." The suffocating aura came back, but this time Setsuna withstood it and retied the blindfold, determined to learn.

"Don't depend on your eyes. Use your sense of touch, feel the air flow around you. Hear the muscles tensing in your opponent. Extend your presence and locate your enemy." The girl braced herself in response.

Naruto smiled at the girl. She would go far. In terms of pure combat skills she would be the best out of the three.

**With Asuna**

"Come here and sit down with me."

Asuna stared at the blonde with confusion, sit down? Weren't they supposed to be training?

"Don't worry just come and sit."

The red head hesitantly sat beside the blonde and mimicked his stance, crossed legs with his hands resting on his knees.

Naruto smiled approvingly, "Good, now close your eyes. I want you to meditate to the exclusion of everything else. Feel only your own existence and presence. To help you do this I will cast an illusion on you that cuts off all your sensory abilities. You won't be able to see, touch, or even taste. The first few times will be difficult because most people panic when it happens to them but don't worry."

Asuna nodded shakily as the blonde started to play his flute.

He hadn't been wrong, it was incredibly scary. It felt like darkness was creeping up, a dark mist that slowly crawled up her body and covered everything. She lost touch, sight and taste. A prisoner in her own mind, unable to stand the sudden loneliness Asuna thrashed around in fear when the fog suddenly lifted and she found herself clinging to Naruto and sobbing. She hadn't even realized that she was crying since she couldn't feel her tears.

Naruto held the girl tightly and cooed gentle words to her, her reaction wasn't unexpected and he had guessed as much.

When the sobbing slowed down he gently whispered to her again, "You feel better?" he received a small nod in reply and softly squeezed the girl in his arms.

"Alright, this time you can hold on to me as I do it again, just let me know whenever you think you're ready."

Her grip on the blonde tightened enough to cut off his air supply and Naruto considered it lucky that the original had chosen to teach Asuna. A clone would have popped in her grip already.

A few more tries later and Asuna had succeeded in at least maintaining her cool in the darkness. When it lifted again she saw a grinning blonde and the red head smiled back. At least she did until the grin suddenly turned predatory.

"Good job. Now we can finally start what I wanted to do."

Asuna gulped again.

The blonde cast the illusion without any warning and when the darkness set in Asuna felt her panic start to rise but she quickly found her centre and regulated her breathing, even though she didn't know if she was really breathing or not.

Focusing on her own existence and she calmed herself and took comfort in it. Then she felt it, a dark feeling rose in her stomach that seemed to be clashing against her existence. It was a few minutes before the darkness lifted again.

"Wha-what was that?" the bewildered girl asked.

"That, was my presence clashing against your existence. We'll do it a few more times, each time it will get clearer and clearer until you know how to describe the feeling."

With each try came more clarity until she understood what was happening and what Naruto was trying to teach her. She likened her existence to a ball of light in the middle of darkness. Naruto's presence was like a hand that was trying to crush that ball. When she told him as much Naruto laughed raucously. "Good! Very good. Now we finally get serious. You can feel my presence and you can feel yours. You understand the limit of your existence, but now instead of defending, attack. Stretch it out and try to smother mine."

They kept at it for the entire evening but Asuna found it incredibly difficult to change that ball of light. The best she could do was form a small needle out of that ball.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more," Asuna said dejectedly.

Instead of getting the scolding she expected, the blonde just smiled.

"It's more than enough for now. Come, I'll show you exactly what I've been trying to get you to do."

She looked at the blonde with a puzzled expression as they left their barrier and moved to the one where Konoka was.

Inside she found a blindfolded Konoka dancing around a clone of Naruto. The clone would attack relentless while Konoka moved around his attacks like fluid water. Asuna felt something burn in her chest as she tried to hide a frown. The two of them weren't training. They were freaking flirting in the middle of battle. Konoka had a small seductive smile as she danced around the blonde, her fans occasionally brushing the blonde's skin as his attacks brushed past her. As they stood watching Naruto whispered to the red head so not to disturb Konoka, unknown to him, the red head's heart skipped a beat at his closeness, "I can't teach Konoka how to fight with magic, so I'm improving her evasive abilities. As my clone attacks her she has to dodge and react with her fans, but she is restricted to only using dance moves, she can't say, jump back if it isn't in the dance."

Asuna nodded half in awe at Konoka's grace and half in irritation as she watched Konoka move around like she was really dancing and the Naruto that was attacking her was nothing but air. Mating dance that is. She doubted the idiot realised it. Or if he did, he wasn't doing anything about it.

Once they were done, the clone dispersed and Naruto gave Konoka a congratulatory hug and Asuna suddenly felt inadequate, before explaining what he and Asuna were here for, "Konoka, can you create a small ball of fire and maintain it for a while?"

Konoka looked at the blonde in confusion for asking such a simple request, but agreed readily enough. Pulling out a novice wand she willed a flame to life even without an incantation. She gave Asuna a dry grin and an explanation without being asked, "Naruto-sensei forces me to practice any spell I learn to the point where I can do it silently."

Naruto made Asuna stand a few feet beside Konoka and her ball of flame, "Alright, now I want you do what you have been practicing so far. Only this time, make your needle pierce Konoka's presence like you did to mine." The blonde gently coaxed Asuna.

"Eeeh? Bu-but wont it hurt her?"

"Don't worry, it'll feel weird if I'm right, but it won't do any lasting damage."

"O-ok…." the red head replied hesitantly.

Konoka watched in confusion, needle? What needle? She continued to watch her best friend close her eyes and focus hard. After a few minutes of absolutely nothing, Konoka suddenly gasped. It felt as if somebody had suddenly thrown a bucket of cold water on her and her flame winked out.

She stared at her wand in shock while Asuna stared at her in shock.

Naruto just grinned sadistically. Out of the three, Asuna had the potential to be the tie breaker. When he was done with her and if he had his way, mages would piss their pants and start running for the nearest hole whenever they heard the name Asuna Kagurazaka.

Funnily enough, the three of them reminded him of rock paper scissors. In theory, Konoka could beat Setsuna anytime with her spells and long range capabilities while Setsuna would always out skill Asuna in pure melee combat since Setsuna wasn't dependant on her _Ki_, on the other hand Konoka couldn't do jack shit against Asuna and her anti mage abilities and with her arsenal practically halved, she could only dodge as long as Asuna didn't let her chant any area of effect spells and since Asuna was a damn stamina tank….

Together? Well, it was a sucker bet only Tsunade-baa chan would take as far as he was concerned.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Fiction Junction Yuuka – Honoo no Tobira**

Naruto sat in his tent with Akako playing with a ball of yarn in her fox form. He sighed, it looked like Chachamaru wasn't coming, not that he had expected her too after he kept brushing her off recently.

When he had asked Evangeline for help, she had only sneered at him and told him, "You made this mess. You fix it." Then she had stomped off but not before throwing one last bit of advice over her shoulder, "Nowadays she just sits at the bottom of the World Tree in the evenings."

He had just smiled at his self proclaimed little sister's hidden caring.

The blonde sighed, picking up the small lump of fur that just looked at him curiously and left the tent. His destination? The World Tree.

As he leapt from tree to tree with a snuffling fox riding on top of his head he wondered exactly what he was going to say to the gynoid.

Chachamaru leant back against the rough bark of the World Tree as she hugged her knees to her chest and watched various people bustling around, setting up tents and what not for the Mahora Festival, with unseeing eyes.

A small weight settled on her head, causing the gynoid to jerk up in surprise. Before she knew it, another presence had sat down on the ground beside her. She berated herself silently for being so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't even sense the approach of the powerhouse beside her.

The three of them stayed silent with the occasional snuffling from the weight atop her head as it rooted about in her hair. Chachamaru smiled at the snuffles and lifted Akako so she could pet the kitsune.

Akako twisted about in her mother's arms and lifted her snout to lick the gynoid's cheek.

"I'm sorry I've been ignoring you lately."

The green haired girl didn't reply, causing the blonde to sigh and lean back into the tree and softly speak, "I really don't know what to say, I'm not like those people that can always say what's right. All I can say is I'm sorry….. I was stupid, and I wronged you, and for that, I'll keep waiting until you forgive me."

The two of them watched the procession of students for a little while longer.

"I…I don't know what's happening to me… at first I just wanted to be by with you because you gave me warmth. I'm not alive, I'm not suppose to have that urge. But it was there. And I couldn't stop it. Being with you in the tent made me so…. so warm. But now I wish I never felt that warmth. Everytime you looked at me, everytime you refused to touch me, my chest felt so tight. I don't need to breathe, but at those times, it felt like I lost that ability. If that's the price for needing to feel your warmth, I don't want it. I don't want to feel that pain."

The gynoid let out a choked sob as laser fluid splashed on a sad Akako, "I didn't even know how to describe those feelings until recently. Because all those nights I spent alone in the tent, I read books alone to see if I could find out what was wrong with myself."

Arms tried to hug her but she pushed the blonde away and stood up over him and even though she tried to hold it in, she failed, her tears fell harder as she screamed at the blonde, hoping that by doing that she would scream the pain away, "Do you how stupid it made me feel! How illogical it was when I went as far as to change my hairstyle, to wear nice clothes, just so I could catch your attention, so that you would stop ignoring me? And for what? For that one second you said I was beautiful, it felt warm again, but when you left that tightness in my chest returned, and it hurt even more. Everything, everytime, it's so illogical, but I can't help it…. When Hakase tried to find out what was wrong with me, I almost asked her to reformat my memories, just so I won't hurt, but I couldn't do it. I had too much to lose, I didn't want to forget Akako, the times we spent together. I couldn't say it. Something was wrong with me and it wouldn't let me say it…."

She grabbed his collar and lifted him up to her face and growled at the blonde, "Do you understand? Because I don't…. tell me how to fix this, I don't want this anymore, I want to go back to being a robot, cold, logical and unfeeling! Then it won't hurt!"

She buried her face in his chest and quietly sobbed into the cloth, "Fix this… please… I don't want to hurt anymore…"

Akako whimpered at her mother's shouts.

Naruto let the girl lift him and shout at him. He deserved it. He held the crying girl tightly and they just stood there as the evening sun set, repeating the words "I'm sorry." over and over again as his own tears fell at the girl's words. The equivalent of a confession from the gynoid even if she didn't have the proper words to say it with. He tilted her chin up and laid his lips to her own.

Chachamaru really didn't know how to respond. All she knew was that she wanted to melt and for once she thanked Kami she didn't need to breathe as the warmth she wanted so badly spread all over her mechanical body. She fisted his shirt and pulled the blonde deeper into the kiss.

When their lips parted, Naruto smiled and spoke.

"I'm not going anywhere. I won't let you feel like that again. I promise."

As he said those words he looked up at the tree behind him and resolve burned. He wasn't going to die. If not for 3-A, then for Evangeline. If not for her then for the girl in his arms.

In his sister's own words, he would be the bastard that just refused to die.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto leaned against the tree with a gynoid that had sobbed herself dry and a sleeping bundle of fur around her neck, as they watched the full moon.

"Neh, Naruto…" a soft voice broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"After the festival can we go visit somewhere? Like the beach vacation, anywhere is fine. Just you, me and Akako."

"Yeah."

Naruto smiled.

******Broken Faith******

"Ano… um… If you could spare some free time to.…Um..." the red headed maiden stared at her shoes as embarrassment heated her cheeks.

"Yes? You know you can tell me anything," the figure in front of her replied.

"I-I-I LIKE YOU!" Asuna practically shouted.

"Oh…. I'm glad…I like you too" Asuna looked up as hope filled her face.

"Wha-Wha-What the?"

She looked up to see an older Konoka wrapped up in Naruto's arms as they walked towards the glowing World Tree. Wait, wasnt the figure Takahata-sensei?

Asuna's eyes snapped open as she sat upright and hit her head on the low ceiling, "Itai….. what the hell was that dream… Crap, must be because of yesterday."

Asuna covered her face and groaned into her palms, "What the hell am I doing…. If Konoka wants that idiot she can have him... I like Takamichi-sensei dammit."

"Ahhhh!" She started pounding her pillow in frustration, only for her pillow to yelp in pain, "A-Asuna-san?"

"Ah! Gomen! I forgot you were in my bed Negi."

"Ah... ok… but what were you shouting about?"

Another fire red stain appeared on Asuna's cheeks, "No-nothing, it's time to go to school!" she kicked the teacher out of her bed and ran to hide in the bathroom.

Negi watched the girl leave with a weird expression on his face, "Asuna-san…"

******Broken Faith******

"Hey~ you guys seen today's newspaper?" Makie asked, the school newspaper in her hands.

She rolled it open for her friends to see. The title was 'Does It Really Work? Legend of the World Tree.'

The legend of the World Tree is a story that has been circulating around campus for decades. It states that if you confess your love underneath it, you will succeed; your love will be unrequited.

"I suppose it could be true?" Yuna said dubiously.

"The ghost turned out to be real," Makie pointed out.

Overhearing this, Misora joined in. "Well, I heard from a sempai that, even though the guy she was after was a super cute club captain and loads of other girls were after him, and everyone said it was impossible, when she confessed, he said yes. They've been dating ever since."

"No way!"

"I also heard that, three girls in our year, they asked their student teachers out and they said yes too."

"Second year junior high girls? Isn't that illegal?"

Undeterred, Misora continued on. "This one is unconfirmed, but apparently someone even managed to ask out a guy from one of those boy bands on T.V."

"Really?"

"Yep," she confirmed. By now there was a sizable crowd gathering around Ako and Yuna, the two who were holding the paper.

"Listen to this: 'No obstacle too tough to overcome. Age, looks, fame, anything is possible. Results don't lie!'

Behind everyone else Makie started to rub her hand and giggle in a really disturbing manner, already planning an all out attack on Negi's affections. Konoka poked her in the side, "Oi, do your creepy laugh somewhere else, your wolf tail is showing."

"Mou~ Konoka…. Heheheheh….. Don't you want to try it out?"

Konoka smacked her harder this time, "Whatever your plan is, I don't want to know. I can already tell it's not going to be good."

"Eh~? But don't you want to go for Evil Naruto-sensei? I know you were thinking about it…. Hehehehe…think about it, you and Naruto, me and Negi, double dates are proven to be more successful…" Makie started to rub her hands as she slowly corrupte-persuaded Konoka to join her plans.

Too bad Konoka was already corrupted and all she got for her trouble was another smack. Rubbing her temples, the princess left the pink haired girl to sit in a corner with a large lump on her head.

"Sigh… idiots all of them… Depending on a tree for love…. Don't they have confidence in themselves?" Konoka muttered.

"Ahaha…. Not everyone is as confident as you Konoka-ojou sama." Setsuna sheepishly said.

"Oh?" Konoka glanced up and down Setsuna with a leer, taking in the swordsgirl's cute neko mimi and untied hair, "You sure you didn't have thoughts along those lines?"

Konoka siddled beside Setsuna and slid one finger up and down Setsuna's arm with a very naughty grin, eliciting a small squeak and shivers from the swordsgirl, "Ideas that say… involve a certain blonde and you like knights saving a princess before engaging in more pleasurab-gak!"

A furiously blushing Asuna had pulled Konoka away from Setsuna by the ear, "Itai Itai Asuna-chan!"

Setsuna fell to her knees and thanked Kami with anime tears, just a bit longer and she… she…. She didn't know what she would've done.

Asuna face palmed, "I don't care _what _you do with _who__, _but you can **please **_don't _flirt like that in class where everyone can see you?"

"I see it enough at training," Asuna muttered under her breath.

"Mou…. I thought you spending some time with Naruto-sensei would_ loosen_ you up, but you're as straight as ever….but don't worry Asuna-chan… I'll ever only flirt with Setsuna, you or Naruto-sensei." Konoka added with a wink as her advances now turned to the redhead, then she slowly whispered _stuff_ into Asuna's ears.

Asuna blushed again as blood started to leak, she knew damn well Konoka placed extra emphasis on the word 'loosen' on purpose and the rest of her sentence didn't help the fantasies rampaging in her head. Not to mention the very….ahem…. interesting ideas Konoka was whispering to her, "I-I don't know what you're talking about! Nuuuu, stop! I want to stay innocent, I don't like whips and no I **don't** want a threesome!" the red head spluttered. Loudly.

Then she blushed as she realized she had practically yelled that last part and everyone in class was staring in her direction.

Then just because the universe wasn't done playing with her, a topless Naruto walked in and noting the weird atmosphere as everyone stared at him, just said, "What?" in an utterly clueless tone.

Asuna fainted.

Konoka sighed as she waved everyone off and propped an unconscious Asuna on the nearest table, "She's so easy to tease sometimes." The princess mumbled before grinning, "We need to do this more, help her build…endurance. Yes endurance."

"Ko-Konoka-ojou sama…."

"Um… not to be nosy but what the hell was that?" a certain blonde cut in as he pointed dumbly at the fainted red head.

Konoka smiled innocently at him, "Temporary blood loss."

"Riight….."

Kazumi timidly walked up to Naruto, "Um… not that we're complaining, why are you walking about topless, Naruto? It's rather distracting." To prove her words she waved a hand to punctuate the group of drooling girls in 3-A.

"What are you guys talking about? Ayaka _asked _me to carry all that lumber and start building the heavy stuff, under the sun. I'm **not** wearing that stuffy uniform while doing that." Naruto replied with a hint of annoyance, "I just came in to get more nails."

"Holy shit, look outside!" Fuka or Fumika shouted, as one, all the girls ran to the window.

There was a horde of drooling girls sitting outside; all of them seemed to be waiting for something. Most of 3-A could guess what judging by the cameras.

Just then Naruto walked out and started hammering again. As one they turned around to see that Naruto had gotten his nails and had already went back out to continue his job. They turned back to the scene outside.

They could see his muscles flexing in his arms and chest all the way from the second floor when he lifted the hammer up and brought it down. As he wiped his sweat, the blonde even developed a typical bishonen sparkle.

_Slurp…. "_Yo-you know, there aren't many boys that are worth it in Mahora…. Maybe we should, you know, since he's our classmate? We should do it before other classes get their claws in him?"

Everyone stared at Yuuna who had spoken.

Then all of a sudden, down below, a green haired girl stomped up to their only male classmate and pulled a protesting Naruto back inside by the earlobe.

"Was that… Chachamaru?" someone spoke in surprise and everyone swivelled back around to see that the gynoid really had gone missing from class. Evangeline just sat by the side and slowly banged her head on the wall, that idiot could be so…. infuriating sometimes. He had no problems noticing affection from girls that he knew personally. But outside of that….. she had yet to find a wall denser than him. He was the kind to just ignore everything if it had nothing to do with him. How could someone so sharp be so… dumb.

Eveyrone swivelled back to look down just as Naruto walked back out, only this time he looked like he was dressed for a snowstorm, balaclava, scarf, boots, the works. He even had what seemed like a fox draped over his head to hide his hair. A grinning fox that seemed to be enjoying her father's humiliation a little too much.

Naruto poked her tummy just so he could stop the smug amusement emanating from his daughter in waves only to get yips that sounded suspiciously like laughter in reply.

"Urgh…. What's going on? What happened and why am I lying here?" a voice from behind Konoka spoke.

Konoka smiled innocently in reply, "Oh nothing, we were just discussing how to help you get Takamichi-sensei. Just bring him to a quiet spot, like practice or something then confess, we'll even help."

"O-Oh…. I see… wait why were we discussing my love life?" Asuna wailed uselessly as Konoka walked off.

As Setsuna followed Konoka she could vaguely hear the brunette mutter under her breath, "Or you could just jump him with his pants down, that's what Okaa-san said she did and it worked pretty well, pretty sure Naruto won't mind if I try that…. Oh wait, he'd run away screaming like a little girl. Otou-san didn't have that kind of balls. Damn Makie was right, I'm going to need her help."

Elsewhere Eishun sneezed and knocked his coffee onto his paper work. "Ah damn, there goes my weekend."

"Ko-Konoka-ojou sama…." Setsuna cried anime tears again. Where had the pure Konoka-ojou sama she knew went?

******Broken Faith******

Asuna staggered to her art class, she was feeling woozy for some reason and there were blank parts in her memory. As if she had blocked herself from remembering something. She wondered what it was.

She sighed as she sat down at her easel and tried to finish the painting she had been working on for while now, a side portrait of Takamichi-sensei. Something Konoka had said had rubbed her the wrong way, but she wasn't entirely sure what it was.

She sighed again and tried to recollect herself by using the meditation techniques Naruto had taught her while her fingers danced on the painting almost on autopilot as hours passed, a strong jaw line… glasses… his usually white suit…. Always looking calm and unruffled….. sword…. side burns…. Whiskers….. Confident but not as distant as Takahata-sensei.

Wait, Takahata-sensei didn't have whiskers or side burns.

She looked at the drawing properly and saw just what she had painted, Takahata and Naruto standing back to back on a hill both had proud confident smiles. Takahata-sensei had one finger adjusting his glasses in his cool and confident way while the blonde had his massive sword on his shoulder looking ready for battle.

Just then someone tapped her shoulder and she looked up in surprise to see the one of two people she didn't want to see right now.

Shii…..

******Broken Faith******

A silhouette stood above Mahora Academy's highest roof and surveyed what would soon be a battlefield if everything went as planned.

Her companion stood beside her in a pensive mood, she had been in one ever since that night. "I don't really care about the plan, as long as I get paid I'm ok with it, but are you sure Naruto won't interfere? I've seen the way he fights when he's angry and I don't want to be on the receiving end. Bullets, magic and swords I can handle, but when he aims for your mind and heart…. One is so scared of her own shadow she can't piss without help and the other was reduced from a proud demon to a crying lump of flesh with the mind of a 5 year old, I am confident I can hold him off but it won't be easy. This plan of yours has more than a decent chance of angering him, especially since it will affect his friends adversely.

The first figure continued whatever she was doing silently contemplating her answer, "No…. I know him well enough to know that as long as we don't threaten people's lives he won't get serious, we just have to keep him from realizing our true goal till the end."

"And how do you know that? In the 3 months he has been here, you have only spoken to him twice that I know off."

"To him right now, as long as no one he personally knows is hurt, he doesn't really care what happens to the magical world, unless specifically asked to do something about it by either Evangeline-san, Negi-sensei or the dean he will simply observe. It's the way he does things, as efficiently as possible unless of course it conflicts with his moral compass." the first shadow explained, "It's the way he taught me before he…." She added so quietly that it was blown away by the wind before Mana could catch the words.

"The.…future? Efficient? How do you know this?" the second figure tried to clarify, "Wait, nevermind, I don't want to hear another 'I'm a Martian' quote."

Chao pouted, she had just geared herself up exactly for that.

"You sure we can't ask him to join us?"

"I don't mind if you're the one to ask. But I can already imagine his reaction at this point, he doesn't care, and he won't take sides because the people involved, you, me, Negi, the dean, Evangeline, Chachamaru, we're all close to him in one way or another. Knowing him, he won't join; instead he'll sit back and eat popcorn while he watches." Chao elaborated with a sweat drop.

"And if we try to tell him our goal to convince him, at this point in time he will turn us down and even if we manage to persuade him not to tell Negi-sensei or the dean, he'll definitely join the battle and the chances of him fighting seriously increases because now he knows it will affect them badly."

"I see…. At least Chachamaru and Evangeline are helping us."

"Ahaha…." Well Evangeline will probably join Naruto and eat popcorn but Mana didn't need to know that.

******Broken Faith******

"Uguuu…. I'm so useless…. Running away like that…"

Someone tapped the depressed girl's shoulder causing her to look straight up into a grinning Konoka and an embarrassed Setsuna, "Aww…. You missed such a good chance too Asuna."

"Geh! You two saw?"

"We..uh…we weren't following you when we saw you and Takahata-sensei alone in class."

Konoka face palmed behind the swordsgirl. '_Ah, Setsuna… You'll never learn to lie will you? Meh…. The fun is in corrupting you anyway. Hehehe…'_

Setsuna felt a shiver run down her back but ploughed on, "A-Anyway, even the usually brave Asuna ran away…. confessing must be really hard…."

Asuna half laughed half cried in reply, "It needs more courage than I have, more than fighting demons even. Even thinking about confessing makes me so nervous…." _And Naruto isn't helping._

Chamo sudden joined the conversation, "Ehehe, I have an idea, you're nervous right? It's like sports, if you're nervous before a competition then you just need to practice!"

Asuna felt the bottom of her stomach fall as she watched Konoka conspire with the ermine.

Shii….

******Broken Faith******

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the boy beside him, "May I know exactly why do you need me to join you on a date? I mean, I heard Chamo talking about it, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't included in the plan."

"Bu-but nii-san! It's Asun- I mean my first date. Even if its practice, I just need some moral support!"

Both of them were dressed up, an older Negi in a light brown jacket, green t-shirt with slacks and an older Naruto dressed similarly to Negi's clothes only predominantly black and made of a tighter fit with an orange shirt. His pony tail fell down his back, enhancing his black clothes and a black leather choker.

Naruto sighed, "Alright, alright, but don't expect me to tell you what to say on a date. I'm as dumb as you are there."

Negi smiled slightly, "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on that."

As the two bishonen walked they were completely unaware of the amount of drool that was starting to flood the streets until Negi bumped into Ako.

"Ah… careful where you walk Ako," Negi smiled softly at his student while Naruto stood by his side, hands in his pockets, looking casually bored, "Ah, you're preparing for your performance then?" Negi said when he noticed the girl carrying a guitar case.

"Umm… yeah?" the girl blushed at being so close to two extremely handsome albeit unknown men.

"I'm looking forward to it," the somehow familiar red head walked off with a smile as the blonde beside him gave her a casual wave.

Ako watched the two of them leave in a daze before being shaken by someone, "Mi-mi-misa? Stop shaking me!"

"Who were those two guys?" Misa demanded, completely ignoring Ako's protest.

"I-I don't know!"

"Liar! He knew your name!"

******Broken Faith******

Asuna glared at the side walk as she waited beside the coffee store, "'Wait here and see Negi's new look,' my foot. Damn pervert ermine." The girl scuffed her foot on the side walk, fantasizing that it was a certain ermine she was stomping on before she finally gave up, "Gah! What am I doing here, this is stupid, I'm going back to fix that painting."

Before she could leave two silhouettes approached her, "Ah... Gomen, we're a bit late because I had to pick Naruto up."

Naruto? What did this have to with him? And where was he?

Her eyes roved about before falling on the one that had greeted her and his companion and her eyes widened.

Negi had lost his baby fat and instead developed lean muscles that suited his build and had become undeniably taller than her, beside him an older Naruto stood. Where Negi had been lean and lithe, Naruto now looked like he had finished puberty, some stubble under his strong jaw that added a certain degree of ruggedness, his back had broadened slightly to complement his lean face and a black choker wrapped tightly around his neck.

Where Asuna had been enjoying the eye candy, Naruto had been doing the same, he had never seen Asuna look this girly. It suited her. Then it hit him, Negi's first date was with Asuna.

Grabbing the grinning red head that had been watching the two of them check each other out, he pulled Negi aside, "You didn't mention your date was with Asuna!"

"Oh I didn't? I'm pretty sure I said something."

"Like hell! Chamo just said you were practicing for a date of some kind! And you implied it with Nodoka!"

"Eh…. Oh look at the time! We should go to lunch!"

Asuna watched the two of them move to a quiet corner and seemed to bicker about something, or rather Naruto seemed flustered and Negi was grinning in a complete reverse of how things usually were between the two of them.

Lunch was an incredibly awkward affair as a grinning Negi edged Naruto in between him and Asuna. The two of them refused to even look at each other. Naruto mostly because while he wasn't going to distance himself, he refused to encourage it either.

Asuna just couldn't do it because her face felt like it was on fire every time she did.

A group of girls suddenly came up to them, tittering; one of them spoke to get the two boy's attention, "A-Ano…"

Both Naruto and Negi turned to face her, Naruto gave her bored lop sided smirk and a "Yes?" while Negi smiled sincerely and asked if she needed anything simultaneously.

All three girls were blown back by the force of their nosebleeds.

Naruto watched the twitching bodies and elbowed Negi, "Eh…. Is that normal for girls nowadays?"

"I dunno. You think we should help?"

"I guess…"

Before either of them could do anything a hand twisted their earlobes as a fire red Asuna pulled both idiots away getting a "Gah, Asuna!" and a "Oi oi, what's up with you and Chachamaru pulling my ears!" from the two males.

She pulled them to a secluded spot and started to scold both of them, "Listen you two, don't think just because you and Naruto suddenly became older and more handsome, the both of you can be vain and hook some innocent girl like those three!"

"Eeeh? Hook some innocent girl?" that was Negi.

"What does that even mean? Wait, they came to us! We didn't do anything!" and that was Naruto.

Asuna glared at Naruto, "I don't care! I won't let you corrupt some poor innocent girl again!" Naruto was half tempted to say Konoka didn't count since she wasn't innocent to start with but settled for sighing in annoyance, "Whatever…." He released his henge before turning back to normal, surprising Asuna. "You two enjoy your date; the haunted house still needs a lot of work."

The two remaning ones looked at each other before looking back at Naruto's retreating back, "That… wasn't the pills was it?"

Negi shook his head, "Naruto-nii san said he had some transformation spells so he didn't need them."

"Ah…."

The date got even more awkward after Naruto left, Asuna seemed to be pensive over something while Negi desperately tried to draw her out but just walking around didn't seem to work.

Behind a wall Konoka was tearing a handkerchief to pieces, "Kiii, my eye candy! Naruto-sensei… come back *sob sob*"

Setsuna sweat dropped.

Negi sighed, the day wasn't going according to plan at all, tapping Asuna's shoulder. "Come on; let's go where we can talk quietly."

Asuna looked up in surprise at Negi's serious expression and nodded.

They reached a pavilion that no one seemed to be using near the World Tree, and Asuna watched as Negi paced around the platform while chewing his lower lip. "What's wrong? Why did you suddenly want to talk?"

Negi sighed as he sat beside Asuna, "First, I want to apologize. I dragged Naruto-nii san to the date on purpose and it just made the two of you uncomfortable. Next, why do you like Takahata-sensei?"

"Wha-what's this all of a sudden? Wait you brought him on purpose?" Asuna spluttered.

"Just tell me."

"Err...Uh…. well…" Asuna sighed before gathering her nerves, "Sigh, you see… when I first came here, I couldn't remember my past at all. All I could remember was Takahata taking care of me. The only person I could depend on was him." Asuna reached up and removed her bell ornaments and smiled softly at them, "I still remember, one day I was sitting alone in class, I didn't even know my birthday nor did I have any friends to celebrate with but suddenly Takahata-sensei knocked on the door and came in. He asked me if I knew when my birthday was. When I said no, he smiled kindly at me before saying, 'Well, since you can't remember your old birthday. Today will be your new one. The day a new Asuna Kagurazaka is born.' Then he gave me these as a present. They were the first presents I could ever remember getting. And the last I ever got from him."

Asuna looked up in to the sky, "From then on, I guess I liked him. Maybe it's stupid; maybe I'm confusing the love for a father for the love for a partner. But to me, it was the first time it felt like I was worth something. Like I was somebody."

Asuna wiped a few tears away and smiled at Negi, "Stupid right?"

Negi shook his head, "I know I'm stupid, and sometimes ***snort from Asuna* **I don't know what to say, but that was beautiful. I can't blame you for feeling like that for someone that gave you your worth. But I just want to ask, why do you like Naruto-nii san as well? Compare them and tell me."

"Wha-what do you mean? What are you talking about, I don't like that idiot!"

"Ignore your embarrassment, just tell me honestly, why do you like Naruto-nii san?"

"Grrr… that's none of your business."

Negi didn't budge and kept staring at her seriously while Asuna fidgeted in her seat before face palming, when the heck had Negi gotten so...persuasive.

"Sigh…. I don't know alright. It just feels right. Takahata-sensei is like someone I look up to. But with Naruto, it's like there's different parts. I can look up to him, admire him, hate him, fight with him, be gentle with him, talk to him like an equal. He can be mature and serious, but when it comes down to it, he's as much of a brat as you Negi." She grinned at the boy before continuing, "I honestly don't get it. Takahata is like this established castle, strong and firm but stationary, but when I look at Naruto, I get the sense of something just as strong, but at the same time the construction isn't don't yet, and watching him get stronger, watching his back protect me and encourage me, it gives me this bubbling feeling that gives me warmth. It makes me want to stand beside that back and grow strong with him. I don't know how to properly say it." Asuna looked at her hands and clenched the bells in her fist.

"Kami, I feel stupid talking about something like this to a 10 year old."

Negi grinned and mimicked Asuna's voice, "'I-I-I LIKE YOU NARUTO!' That's what you said in your dreams this morning before you woke up, word for word."

Asuna blushed deeply and tried to deny it while Negi continued to speak, "I admit, I'm just ten years old Asuna. I don't know what love is, nor am I ready to date or anything along those lines. But even I can see the difference. When I met you, you were a steady, determined, brash but honest girl, you had this glow inside you that anyone could see. But when Naruto came along, that brashness changed into something, something soft. I could see it every time you looked at him while we were in Kyoto. I saw it when you bandaged him in his room, when you play your flute, but after we came back from Kyoto, that brightness dimmed somehow because the two of you weren't as close anymore, like something happened but I didn't understand it at the time. On the other hand when you talk about Takahata-sensei, there's something forced about it, you blush; you say you like him but…"

Asuna watched the boy struggle to find the words, "AH! It just feels weird. I don't know how to say it. But when you talk about Naruto there's a difference. A passion and softness that isn't there when you talk about Takahata-sensei. I'm not saying you should go after Naruto. I'm just saying I don't want to see the brash, honest, caring Asuna I know to be so depressed, like you're hiding something. It hurts to see you so indecisive, it hurts me, Konoka, Setsuna, everyone of us that likes the bright caring Asuna are hurt. Especially because it's about something like this, so… so just do what you have to do and change back into the bright and beautiful Asuna we know. That's why I brought Naruto today but it failed, I'm sorry."

Asuna sat there stunned as she listened to Negi's words. Then she smiled and stood up before conking Negi on the head, "I-itai! What was that for?"

Asuna turned her back to Negi so he couldn't see her face, "Tch, have I really fallen so low that I need romantic help and advice from a ten year old."

"Wha-wha?"

"Hmph, come on, we have to finish this date or Konoka and Chamo's efforts will be wasted."

"Huh? Wh-Why are you suddenly talking about this date?"

"Tch, be quiet and let's go. There's a shrine over there that I want to visit."

"Eeeeh?"

"Women are weird," Negi muttered under his breath, careful not to let Asuna hear him as he was dragged by the collar along to the shrine.

Konoka and Setsuna watched them go, before Konoka snapped her fingers, "Let's go home Setsuna."

"Bu-but Konoka-onee san! I want to watch more!"

Konoka grabbed the ermine and brought it up to her face before smiling sweetly at the ermine, "We've seen enough haven't we?" she squeezed the ermine slightly to emphasize her point,

"Hai Konoka-sama!"

"Eh? We're really not going to watch them anymore?"

Konoka dropped the scared shitless ermine, "Fufufu, there's no need to anymore. Asuna already made her choice, I don't know what is it, but that's none of my business."

"Huh?"

Konoka faced Setsuna and her bottom lip trembled, "Yo-you don't want to go home and spend some time alone with me? I mean we've been so busy and now that Asuna and Negi aren't there….." she trailed off and watched as the gears turned in Setsuna's head.

Konoka hid a grin as Setsuna grabbed her and flew them both back to the dorm. That reminded her; she needed to learn that transformation spell from Naruto. She preferred being seductive over being cute, but that avenue didn't have as much of an impact in her 14 year old body. It was so much more effective in her 17 year old one. Fufufufufu….

******Broken Faith******

Naruto hammered on a plank as the moon rose in the sky behind him before wiping the sweat away and stretching his back. His shirt and jacket were lying on a chair nearby. He had already told Chachamaru he probably wouldn't be back tonight till late. He smiled as he surveyed the growing makeshift building. He loved working with his hands; it was far more satisfying than exercise of the mental kind. He supposed he was just that kind of person no matter how intellectual he forced himself to be. He could have used clones to speed up the process but it felt more satisfying when he did it with his own hands.

Suddenly his hand shot out to grab something on reflex. Staring at the cold can of juice dumbly he turned around to see Asuna sitting on a low wall, grinning at him. How the heck did she get the drop on him?

"I thought I'd find you here."

"Yeah? You finished the date with Negi?" he tried to keep the resentment in and succeeded in keeping his tone neutral.

"Yeah, I dragged him back to change into his 10 year old form again then we enjoyed the festival at the shrine. No matter how handsome his 15 year old form was, it just wasn't natural. I didn't like that feeling."

Naruto smirked, "So you saying you prefer 10 year old kids to 15 year old kids?"

Naruto ducked a plank that flew in the direction of his head as Asuna glared at him, "I don't like kids. Period."

"Hmph, and here I thought you'd be a good moth-"

Asuna raised an eyebrow, "Good what?"

Naruto averted his eyes, "Nothing, I need to get this done." before he resumed hammering the plank.

It didn't take long before he felt her presence join him in hammering.

He wouldn't encourage her, but that didn't mean he couldn't take comfort in her presence.

******Broken Faith******

Ayaka came to school the next morning, determined on making the haunted house a success. Only to gape as she found the entire thing already completed. "Wha-who-huh?"

A topless Naruto walked out of the haunted house and Ayaka stared dumbly at him, "Oh, bondage girl. The foundation is already done. The only things left to do are the cloth related stuff, like curtains and décor."

She was about to answer when a red head walked out of the same room Naruto had just been in, her clothes dishevelled and unbuttoned halfway down her chest and her hair mussed, "Na-yawn-Naruto? Where did you go? It's so cold."

Very indecent thoughts crossed the female blonde's mind at the red head's words; most of them had something to do with a naked Naruto and an equally naked Asuna, before it snapped, "How indecent!"

Ayaka failed to look either Naruto or Asuna in the eye for the rest of the day.

******Broken Faith******

**Day before Festival**

Evangeline strolled into her cottage, looking extremely happy. Walking by the couch she kicked the blonde currently napping on it, "Whuh- wha?"

The blonde groaned from the floor, "What is it Eva-chan? And did you _have _to kick me?"

"You stay in my house, you follow my rules. And since you're freeloading here now, I order you to join the Martial Arts Tournament."

Naruto grumbled, "It's not like I wanted to stay here, couldn't say no when Chachamaru looked at me like that."

Evangeline smirked smugly, "And I let you stay here. So since Chachamaru belongs to me, and you belong to her, by proxy you belong to me, Ohohoho."

Naruto lunged at the vampire and started tickling her, "No! STOP! Bwahaha! Please!"

Grinning at the vampire, "Who owns who now?"

"I own you!"

He started tickling her again, "Noooo! Stop! Bwahaha! Ok, Ok I GIVE!"

His victory smirk lasted as long as it took Eva to gather her wits and knee him in the ribs, "Idiot. Anyway, you should take part in the Tournament. You always complain you don't get to fight all out. There are a lot of good fighters in it and I _know _Takahata always joins and his pretty strong for a human."

A shaky thumbs up rose from the groaning blonde on the floor, prompting another victory smirk from Evangeline. If the blonde joined this year, along with his four students and Negi, the fights would be pretty interesting.

A knock on the door alerted the two of them, giving each other a look which Eva shook her head to, Naruto shrugged before opening the door to find Takahata. "Oh there you are Naruto, I couldn't find you at your usual place, luckily I came here first, I thought you were camping out in the classroom or something. Hahaha."

Naruto sweat dropped, "Yeah… I shifted here. Don't ask why, it hurts my male ego. Anyway you were looking for me?"

Takahata looked strangely at the blonde before continuing, "Yeah, the dean has called a meeting for everybody on campus that is a mage and a few certain independents, you're one of those independents, so you're invited."

"Oh…. What time is the meeting?"

"In about an hour."

"Right, thanks for the heads up man."

"Sure, I'll be seeing you."

When the teacher left he turned to the vampire, "So you know what that was about?"

Evangeline looked pensive, "It's earlier than usual….."

"What's earlier than usual?"

"Basically you know how magic is a combination of a person's belief and will commanding the natural energy in the atmosphere?"

"Yeah…? The energies in the world can be divided into three rough categories, physical energy, the energy the body uses, Ki, and then we have mental power, or will, or mana and lastly natural energy. The latent energy in the atmosphere. Magic in general is the combination of the latter two while the chakra I use is a combination of the former two and my Sage Mode is a combination of all three. Why?"

"It boils down to the fact that the magical energy in the tree overflows and is released into the atmosphere for a period of three days, the entirety of the Festival if I'm not wrong, from there on, because of the amount of magic in the air, if you believe strong enough, and the magic resonates in response, your wishes can literally come true. Well not literally, the wishes have a pretty insignificant limit if you ask me. Not big ones, just small ones. And humans being humans naturally take advantage of it, and they use it for the stupidest thing. For love confessions."

Naruto didn't care about that, he had heard the term magical discharge and he immediately started making theories.

"So…. You're saying the magic in the tree becomes too much, so it releases into the atmosphere? Is it a natural process or is it affected by seals? And why is it earlier than usual? By earlier, how much earlier?"

Evangeline frowned at the flood of questions before she remembered the male blonde's current…problem, "It's a year early. Usually this happens every 22 years but I assume that your release and the fact that you use more energy compared to when you were sealed has accelerated the process. You need more energy, so you regenerate more, hence the tree absorbs more than usual. I'm not entirely sure whether it's natural or not, I wasn't here for the last one so I wouldn't know the difference but the records of all previous ones are around since it was a big deal. For humans anyway. You think you can use this to your advantage?" Evangeline questioned.

"I'm…not sure. But I'm going to try anyway. The discharge might have something to do with the fact the seal managed to keep me in there for 5000 years. Best case scenario, I can make the magical discharge a perpetual thing rather than once every 22 years, only in smaller quantities to offset my regeneration. Worst case scenario, it has nothing to do with me, and I still need another way." Naruto shrugged, "This is just one of a few ways I'm thinking about. So I'm not exactly desperate."

Evangeline quirked an eyebrow at his nonchalant attitude, "And yet you have yet to tell Chachamaru or the bouya."

Naruto squirmed uncomfortably, "We-well, it's like you said. Everyone has to die someday. For me it's just a more set in stone thing. There's no difference."

"Uh huh…." Her grin widened.

"And it's kinda stupid, I mean, 'I'm sorry I ignored you because I was afraid I was going to die. But don't worry I don't know when I'm dying. Just like every other human being.'" Naruto paused. "Ok, that sounds _really _stupid when I say it out loud."

Evangeline grinned broadly at the blonde and he just knew she would find a way to use it to humiliate him. Counter black mail time.

He pulled a picture of Evangeline sleeping while cuddling a plushie that had red hair and wore a tattered robe out and flashed it at the vampire and savoured the taste of embarrassment in the air as she slowly paled, "Whe-where did you get that?"

Naruto grinned, "Don't bother trying to sneak into my room at night and stealing it. I got a lot of copies hidden all over Mahora just in case you did exactly that."

He left the spluttering vampire as he went to the meeting with a grin. He was going to do something nice for Chachamaru tonight. Dinner and Massage? Wait, do robots even enjoy massages?

******Broken Faith******

Naruto turned his head to find himself at the Plaza; there were 17 other people present, including Negi, Kotarou and Setsuna. The only other people he recognized off the top of his head was the Dean, Takahata and Shizuna-sensei.

On the far left were two nuns, one adult (Sister Shakti) and one younger than Naruto. To their direct right was a man in a suit that he vaguely recognised but couldn't place (Seruhiko), a red haired girl with cute flower hair clips, then the Headmaster, Shizuna, Kotaro, Negi and Setsuna all in a row. Then there were three people, one girl in a sailor uniform, and then two adult men, again in suits. One rather chubby (Nijuin Mitsuru) and the other slightly taller and more fit looking (Akashi). This time he didn't recognise them at all. To their direct right was a beautiful blonde girl, and then another group of three, two very tall men (Gandolfini) and a blonde sword wielding woman (Kuzunoha Toko), again in suits. Standing a step apart was another man with a beard and sunglasses wearing a suit (Kataragi). Naruto guessed they were teachers, but couldn't be sure. Then again, not his problem.

Striding up to Negi he ruffled his hair, "Sup?" while the wolf boy quietly edged away from him. The blonde was completely insane to Kotarou and he hadn't forgotten that time in the class either.

"Nii-san! You were called too?"

"Yeah. All mages and some certain people are called to attend, since Konoka and Asuna isn't here, I assume I was called because my status as bodyguard probably means I would have to do more."

"Hahah, but you're enjoying it here aren't you?"

"Yeah, I won't deny that," Naruto smiled at the small boy.

"Still, I'm really surprised, there are so many people here that I didn't know where mages."

"Really? Considering this place has dragons, half demons, ninjas, robots and even vampires, I can't find it in myself to be surprised anymore." Naruto said with a sweat drop.

Just then a man in a suit walked up to them, "Ah Naruto-san, Negi-sensei. I'm glad to be able to finally greet you as a mage." The man said with a small smile.

"Seryuhiko-sensei! You're a mage too!"

As the other mages moved to greet them Naruto took the time to look around and carefully noted the threat level of everyone there. For precautionary measures of course. The only person of note was a blonde girl in black. Her signature was somewhat different than the norm. He wondered why.

"You can stop checking me out now." A voice suddenly spoke and startled the blonde; the blonde girl he had been staring at had walked up to him without him noticing, he was amused to note she was blushing.

"Do you always automatically assume any men that look at you are checking you out? Or are you just looking for a reason to speak to me?"

The blonde girl in black huffed, "Don't let it get to your head. Handsome men like you are always playboys."

"And girls like you shouldn't wear such revealing outfits if you don't want men checking you out." Naruto shot back with a grin at the banter.

The girl blushed, "Wha-whatever." She stomped away to argue with a shy red haired girl in a hushed manner.

The rest of the meeting was pretty normal, the dean prattled on about the Legend of the World Tree. There wasn't much that Evangeline hadn't already told him and so Naruto amused himself by winking at the blonde in black whenever she looked at him.

Naruto suddenly paused as a thought hit him, what was it with him and teasing blonde girls? Ayaka, Evangeline and this girl made three. As far as he could tell, he didn't tease anyone as much as them. Meh, it was fun so he wasn't going to stop. Maybe it was because all three of them were so high strung and presented a sophisticated image he just couldn't resist teasing and proving that underneath all that trump and bluster was a soft mushy inside. Although... he wasn't going to risk teasing that blonde woman in a suit and holding a sword with a strict expression until he knew she wouldn't stick it somewhere uncomfortable if he did.

Suddenly a few teachers tensed and one of them, a serious old man wearing sun glasses with a Terminator vibe sent a vacuum wave at an object that was floating in mid air.

Chaos reigned as a few of them jumped away towards the object.

Huh, that was interesting; he hadn't noticed that thing at all. He assumed it was because robots didn't give away a magical signature, Chachamaru used magic as fuel so she didn't count. On the other hand he knew the ghost and Kazumi were nearby. But again, not his problem. What _was _his problem was the girl that the mages were chasing.

Sigh… he had avoided her whenever possible but it looked like that wasn't going to be viable any longer. Quietly the ninja cricked his neck and stretched before fading away.

Konoemon looked at the remaining mages, "All of us will make patrol shifts until the festival ends. Alright, scatter!" he finally ordered.

"Yes Sir!"

Instantly the other Mage's scattered, leaving Konoe, Kotarou, Negi and Setsuna in the plaza as it slowly began to fill with people again.

"Where did these people all come from?" Kotarou spoke for the first time since Naruto had arrived.

"The spell keeping them away has been lifted," Negi explained.

"Really? Cool."

"Negi-kun, Naruto-kun, please avoid confessions to your own selves as well." A voice broke in from behind the trio.

"Wah, what are you trying to say? _The old man is planning something! Shit! Think of something quick!_ Why would people confess to us?" Negi tried to ask innocently, "Wait… where is Naruto-nii san?"

Everyone looked around until Kotarou answered, "He slipped away a few minutes ago. I think he went to chase after the student with the robot like the others."

"Ah…. Never mind then. I'll let him know another time. In the mean time, just please be careful." The dean restated before ambling away and out of sight.

Negi gave the old man an affirmative before the three of them went to start their patrol.

"Sigh…. Naruto-nii san probably ran away because he was too lazy to do patrols. He probably knew what the dean was going to ask before we did."

"Aahah…. " Setsuna couldn't deny it. The blonde was incredibly lazy sometimes. Or at least he looked lazy.

"Gwahhh… Nevermind that, because of that stupid legend I'm even more worried about my safety! Especially since I have so many dates! *sob sob* I have to go the tournament or Evangeline-sensei will kill me, but if I go, all the **_other _**girls will kill me. I'm too young to die! Kami! Help me!" Negi fell to his knees and desperately prayed for help with his hands spread wide while Kotarou and Setsuna sweat dropped at Negi's breakdown.

Just then a hooded figure landed in his arms.

"Err….. Thank you Kami?"

******Broken Faith******

**AN :** Just a small rant, I find it really annoying when authors decide to include divine help to the main character in a fic outside of logic's realm. Sure it adds a degree of romanticism but….. sigh. I have a lot of examples, Kami helps Naruto because he had a bad childhood. Death helps Harry Potter because Dumbledore was a jerk. Sigh. If God helped everyone with a bad childhood there wouldn't be any suffering, and I know there are many people who are treated worse, like in Iraq. The only difference is Naruto has a demon in his gut. I mean, I got nothing really when Divine gives assistance as long as it's a) plausible, b) the dude actually worked for it, c) it's a plot device. But when you get Kami coming down to Konoha just because Kakashi was an asshole and didn't want to train him for the Chuunin exams and bestow Naruto with enough power in his penis to nuke Konoha….

But I guess what my rant boils down to, is that I really hate overpowered Main Characters that aren't competent and couple that with a plot that doesn't make sense…. thing is, I dont mind overpowered characters but do it right, meaning; good story, good timing and pacing, enemies you love to hate, add some intensity and suspense and voila you can turn an overused cliche into something absolutely GAR and fantastically epic. but..but... i look at what is the norm nowadays and i cant help but cringe.

Sometimes I wonder where the good old writers that actually had common sense went. That and the days where Harry's ass wasn't permanently plugged by Snape or Draco and when Naruto wasn't busy lusting after Sasuke even in fanfiction. Lol. Is Yaoi really that interesting?

Sorry for the rant, I was bored and looked around for something decent to read, and one hour later? Nothing but butt plugs and sighs.

I think I should go back and archive all the good fics with Microsoft words or something. Before they're all buried under the yaoi and other crap. Stuff from writers like Jeconais, Kenchi618 and pokemaster12, Aragon Potter, lord of the land of fire, Gabriel blessing, robst, Third Fang; good storyline, overpowered for a good reason but with enough challenge that the story doesn't go stale, good grammar and consistent.


	16. Mahora Fest Truly Begins

**Broken Faith 16**

**Disclaimer : Don't own anything. Nope…. Not Naruto, Not Negima, nothing.**

**Oh and thanks beforehand, especially some of those that have been with me since the beginning, Turki-sama, bakapervert, Jimbobob, Lazruth, dopplerdee, Vandenbz, 7Winds, AznPuffyHair, Orchamus, Mzr9, Richy1991, G3neSyS, Rialga, Savoxgut, Sile-Undying-Devil, and purpledemon431. If I miss anyone, I'm sorry. Well now, this is the real start of the Mahora Fest. The Kyoto arc was long and the filler + demon arc even longer but we finally got here eh? Woots. I did a lot of things wrong and my writing isn't perfect, I hope to improve more as my story continues, so don't start throwing tomatoes yet.**

**Hint hint : I wanna get at least 500 reviews before uni starts. Come on people! **

**Soundtrack List**

Rie Tanaka – MOTHER MOON

Tommy Heavenly 6 – Unlimited Sky (Acoustic)

******Broken Faith******

Four figures leapt high above the roofs of Mahora Academy's student city. Before long another 17 more shadowy figures leapt across the same gap in buildings in hot pursuit of the first four figures.

"Tch, why are you being chased by these things Chao-san!" Negi demanded from the hooded figure which was being carried by Setsuna.

"Go-gomen Negi-sensei, I'm actually being chased by an evil magician! These are just her servants!" the hooded figure replied as much innocence as she could muster.

Kotarou mumbled under his breath, "Servants? So I wasn't wrong…. Negi!" He called out.

Negi grunted in reply as he avoided a blast of magic from another group of shadow servants that just ambushed them, "What? I'm a little busy here."

"These things are the same as my Wolf Spirits, it's ok to hurt them!"

Negi smiled in return, "Finally we're getting somewhere, Setsuna-san!"

"Understood." Setsuna pivoted.

"Huh? Wait whaaaa!" the figure screamed as Setsuna threw her straight up in the air before slipping into a Iaijutsu stance, "Negi-sensei, cover me."

The swordsgirl leapt into the air towards their group pursuers, right before she reached them a flash of bright light from behind her blinded the summons, before they could regroup she had already resheathed her nodachi and she leapt back to Negi-sensei's side as the group of pursuers that was behind them fell into pieces just in time to catch a screaming Chao that fell out of the sky.

As she landed with the swirly eyed girl, Negi fired off arrows of magic towards the newcomers that hit each enemy with a headshot with pinpoint accuracy aided along with Kotarou's wolf spirits before slamming the ground and a dome of earth covered them entirely. A few seconds later three mages landed and fired spells at the dome of earth. When the smoke had dissipated, the four of them were nowhere to be seen within the crumbling earth dome.

Three mages landed on the roof, "Tch, they got away with Chao Lingshen and we fell for the bait. It looks like she has mages helping her now and their not weak either if they managed to defeat 34 summons with just two moves. This might get troublesome." A dark skinned male spoke.

The blonde girl that Naruto had spoken to earlier turned to her red haired companion, "Mei, you're the one of the best sensors in St. Ursula. Can you find them?"

The shy girl nodded before focusing, it didn't take long to find them, "Got them. In an alley 30 feet south of here. Nee-san?" she looked to the blonde for further instructions.

Takane nodded before tensing her muscles to leap off only for Gandolfini to stop her, "No. if Chao's companion are truly as good as I think, we need to surround and trap them. Chasing them like we have been doing so far will be useless. Spread out and circle them."

The two girls nodded before leaping away, the male hesitated a while before jumping away as well. He was surprised the blonde he sensed following them hadn't moved yet, and he didn't bother making it a secret that he was following them either.

**In the alley**

"Hahaha, I'm saved… thanks a lot Negi-sensei. But I was really surprised, in this era there are still people who can fight so well without guns."

"Hahaha…. It was no problem, but Chao-san why were you being chased? And how do you know about magic?"

Before Chao could explain, Kotarou interrupted them, "There's no time for talk. The enemy already found us. One above the rooftops, and another two are about to block both sides of the alley."

Chamo scratched his chin, "I can disrupt their telepathic communications, everything else is up to you Aniki."

Negi moved to peek out of the alley and saw two shadow servants trailing a blonde girl, "Thanks Chamo, that helps a lot, they must have a sensor, if you can block their communications It'll help us get away alot easier. Still there's a problem, I don't want to leave Chao-san alone here while we attack the three that are surrounding us since we can't discount the possibility that there is a fourth hiding somewhere. Setsuna… Setsuna?"

The swordsgirl was staring at her hand in slight shock until she was shaken out of it by Negi calling her name, "Ye-yes?"

Setsuna was somewhat surprised. This was the first time she had been in active combat since she started training with Naruto-sensei 3 weeks ago and the first thing she couldn't help but notice was how sharp and crisp her moves had become. That wasn't all, in battle even when she focused on the enemies, her awareness of everything around her didn't diminish in a tunnel vision, her eyes didn't stop moving and had caught every detail with near clarity. She clenched her fist and a small smile appeared; she was getting stronger. She was honestly surprised by how much she had improved in just three weeks….. Although that probably had something to do with being beaten into the ground while under pressure on a daily basis. Thank Kami, Konoka-ojou sama could heal.

Negi glanced worriedly at the swordsgirl for a while before continuing, "Can you deal with the one on the roofs? Now that they have separated, even though we're surrounded we can easily break through the parameter with only one opponent."

Setsuna nodded before leaping up. Negi turned to the wolf boy, "Kotarou, you and I are going to break through the other side, there's only one person to subdue before the other one arrives, the third is being dealt with by Setsuna, so that one won't be a problem."

Kotarou cheerfully agreed before Negi grabbed Chao by her arm and both of them leapt out of the alley.

As both of them dodged around the multitude of people Negi noted one person who stood out, "Kotarou! There, that red headed girl!"

"Got it!" Kotarou leapt away while Negi continued on his course.

Takane cursed under her breath as she leapt through the alley, spreading out had allowed them to get close without being noticed but it also reduced their combat capabilities as proven by one of their opponents easily subduing Mei with a simple flip while their target got away with the help of another mage. She assumed Gandolfini was also similarly incapacitated since he had missed their cue. How many people were they up against dammit?

She could only spare a few shadow servants to sneak up on the one who had beaten Mei while she herself didn't have a choice except to continue pursuing Chao Lingshen.

**With Gandolfini**

The dark skinned teacher slowly crept towards the gap where he could barely sense four people, just as he got himself ready a shadow took the initiative and jumped at him from the gap, caught by surprise Gandolfini could only gasped and tried to defend himself.

His gun only got lifted up halfway before it was cut to pieces, leaving only a useless grip in his hand as the shadow stepped into his guard.

The teacher gulped slightly, he could feel his Adam's apple bounce against the very sharp blade at his neck, trying to move his free hand was futile since he could feel another blade pricking his armpit, making sure his free arm didn't go anywhere.

"Gan-gandolfini-sensei?"

Huh? The attacker knew him?

He finally got a good look at his attacker.

"Sa-sakurazaki-san?"

**With Mei Sakura**

"Uguu…. I hope I don't fail…."

Mei slowly crept closer to the alley just in time to see Chao being carried by two boys, but they were moving too fast for her to see their faces. Mei fumbled for her broom and tried to defend herself when one of the two boys split away and charged at her. Lifting the broom up she tried to hit her attacker only for him to side step the broom before grabbing her wrists and throwing her onto her back.

Kotarou stared at the groaning girl on the floor in shock, "Huh? You were at the meeting! What are you doing here?"

Before he could say anything else he was hit on the back of his head and everything went black.

**With Negi**

"Grrrr…. Whoever is following us is freaking persistent. I can't get him off my trail."Negi muttered under his breath, he looked around for anything that could help them, when he found it the boy smiled. "Hold on tight Chao-san."

"Umm… ok? Kyaaaa!"

Negi sped up before ducking into an alleyway, dropping Chao gently onto the ground he motioned for her to be quiet for a while before quietly chanting under his breath with one palm touching the floor as another orb formed in his free hand as he listened to the footsteps get louder.

Takane cursed under her breath again, Chao and her assistant had ducked into a corner, speeding up, she prepared to turn but her foot lost all traction, the floor was suddenly slick and muddy, causing the blonde girl to slip as a figure dashed out of the alley, in a last ditch effort she raised her wand hand only for the figure to step into her guard, pushing away her wand and a glowing palm on her abdomen slammed her into the mud that was once solid cement.

Right as a silhouette passed the alley Negi dashed out, crouching low to the ground, ignoring the small gasp, the red head grabbed a slim wrist and twisted the novice wand out of the way before slapping his palm to his attacker's abdomen, slamming his off balance opponent into the mud, ready to release a point blank _Fulguratio Albicans._

Takane's eyes widened before she scrunched her eyelids shut, bracing herself for the pain that never came.

One second.

Two seconds.

Nothing happened and the blonde girl carefully unscrewed her eye lids to see her attacker's palm had been twisted away, saving her from being shocked while she was being shielded by a broad back.

"Sigh…. Negi, what did I say about knowing when to attack and when to talk?"

"Ni-nii-san? What are you doing here?"

Huh? Nii-san?

She was all set to yell and shout when a few more people landed around her, "Takane-nee sama! You're safe!"

"Ah… Naruto-sama you caught Chao Lingshen."

"Naruto-sensei! Negi-sensei! It was all a mistake!"

Huh? Mei? Gandolfini? Takane couldn't help it as a headache started to drum a steady rhythm behind her temples. She had been running about like a headless chicken for nearly an hour, she was sticky and muddy and she had nearly been fried.

Takane was pissed off.

"Everyone! SHUT UP!"

Everyone stared at the muddy blonde girl's outburst. The blonde panted before trying to calm herself, "Will someone _**please **_explain what is going on here?"

The dark skinned male stepped up, with Naruto around he didn't want any _misunderstandings_; "I'm afraid there has been a misunderstanding. You see, we thought Chao-san brought some hostile mages into the Academy, but Negi-san here is actually a member of the Mahora Academy faculty, both Setsuna-san and Naruto-san here are among those who are aware of the magical world with permission." He gestured at the unconscious wolf boy, "He is also a newcomer to Mahora and a friend of Negi's. What I _don't _understand however is why are you guys are protecting Chao Lingshen." he finished by waving at the sheepishly grinning girl and Negi's entourage.

"Eh? Bu-but, Chao-san is my student! If a student of mine is attacked, it's obvious I'm going to help isn't it?" Negi answered with a frown.

"What? You're her teacher? I see…. That would explain a lot… But you haven't heard about the warning about Chao Lingshen? Naruto-sama you know about this don't you?"

"Hu-huh? What information? Nii-san?" Negi felt like his head was about to explode while Naruto simply nodded, "Chao-san here is a repeat offender of trespassing on Mage only meetings and trying to gather sensitive information about Mages despite being a normal student."

"That's right." Gandolfini gestured for two shadow servants to apprehend the quiet girl.

"Ne-Negi-kun….." Chao sent a pleading look to her homeroom teacher while she glanced at the tall blonde who was simply observing the proceedings. As expected, he wasn't going to interfere since it wasn't his problem, he had just caught her according to orders and that was it.

"Wa-wait! What did she do that was so wrong? And what are you going to with her?"

Takane sighed, "You don't get it do you little boy, Chao-san found out about the magical world by accident, but we didn't think she was a threat so we let her be as long as she doesn't know too much. But she tried to find out more about the Magical world on her own, going so far as to send in her robots to spy on our meetings like the one earlier. Before, we only gave her warnings but this is her third offence so now we have to erase her memories."

"E-erase her memories? Bu-but that's not a good thing to do!"

"I'm afraid we can't help it. Chao-san has repeatedly broke the law, not to mention we have proof that she has been secretly meeting up with the Dark Mage Evangeline-san. We can't take the risk of two criminals like that conspiring together."

"Cri-criminals? That's not true! Evangeline-sensei is very nice!"

"No matter what you say, nice or not doesn't change the fact that Evangeline-san and Chao-san have both broken our laws." Gandolfini refuted.

"Uguu…."

"If there's nothing else, can you peacefully hand Chao-san over to us?"

Negi clenched his fist, "No." he firmly stated.

"What?" the dark skinned teacher looked surprised.

Negi looked at the dark skinned man with clear eyes, "Chao-san is a student of 3-A. a student of my class. As their teacher, I cannot allow you to do something like erase her memories because taking care of their safety is my duty. I'll take whatever responsibility for her actions. So I cannot allow you to erase her memories."

Mei slowly blushed in the background at the sight of the boy's resolve while Takane humphed as she tried to clean as much mud from her clothes as possible.

Gandolfini rubbed his temples, "Sigh…. If you are so inclined…. If she breaks the law again, it will be on your head. Do you understand? If she does this again, I won't be able to help you, and she will still lose her memory. Only this time you will be punished as well by being turned into an ermine."

Takane broke in, "What! After all that trouble we went through, we're letting her go? Even if he says she's his student, we can't just take his words at face value! His just a high school teacher! The risks are too high!"

"If the words of a high school teacher are not enough, what about the words of the East and West's Mage ambassador? A quiet voice broke in.

Everyone turned in surprise at the blonde who had been quiet so far.

"Ambassador? Nii-san?" Negi and Setsuna gaped at Naruto.

"I see….. if it's you, I have no argument. I'll leave it to you Naruto-sama." Gandolfini quickly left as fast as he could, pulling Takane and Mei along with him before they could protest.

"Nii-san? What ambassador are you talking about?"

Naruto glanced at him from the periphery of his vision and waved it off with a grin, "Just something the senile old dean and Eishun cooked up." He looked back at the girl who was staring at her shoes before tapping her shoulder and motioning for her to follow him.

Chao looked up in surprise before meekly following but hesitated before running back to Negi, "Negi-sensei, thanks a lot for helping me. Here. This will help you out a lot in the Festival." The girl passed him a weird pocket watch with a wink before running after the blonde while waving at them.

**With Gandolfini, Mei and Takane**

"Gandolfini-sensei! What was that? What ambassador was he talking about?" Takane demanded.

Mei nodded in agreement.

Gandolfini rubbed his temples and sighed heavily, "That man isn't a normal student. It's a secret among the mage faculty but he was sealed in the World Tree for Kami-sama knows how long and was only released recently. Shortly after, he was appointed as bodyguard to 3-A, but generally guards Mahora Academy as well. He's the reason we haven't had as many incidents as we used to, especially during the holiday season. After that he worked his way up and somehow gained the trust of Eishun-sama and Konoemon-sama. They both agreed to make him the Ambassador to both the East and West meaning whenever there is a dispute involving both sides and neither heads of the mage association can make the final decision because of their bias, a neutral faction, in this case Naruto-sama, is sent in to _**resolve**_ the situation."

Gandolfini shivered at the word resolve, both Mei and Takane noticed.

"Wha-what do you mean?"

The dark skinned man pinched the bridge of his nose, "What I'm about to tell you is a secret, you understand?" he received two nods before he was satisfied enough to continue, "About seven weeks ago, we caught wind of a group of mages from Britain preying on Eastern and European mages, specifically young female Mages. I won't go into details, but a contingent of our mages, including me, was sent to deal with as part of multinational task force due to the nature of the crime. Mostly because although the English mages weren't under our jurisdiction and no Western Mages were harmed, the offence was basically committed in our territory. Joining us were mages from the European Union and the Eastern Association. He was basically sent along with us as insurance and that was actually the first time I was in the same group as him although I knew he had been working with us for a few months already."

Gandolfini's eyes took on a glazed look, "We tracked them for a week and finally found their hideout, a warded apartment in the outskirts of London. The whole time he was with us, he spoke only one word answers and didn't mix with us. When we surrounded them we suddenly heard the screams of a girl. Naruto-sama was originally sent only to observe our actions as Ambassador, to ensure that the punishment was fitting, that we weren't biased because even though these were British mages we were dealing with, they did it on our territory, but after hearing those screams he looked at us with these blazing purple eyes and said, _'Stay here._' Two simple words, the longest we heard from him so far and everybody froze. There was a total of 15 people in the Task force. Everyone of us **freaking **froze. There were at least three archmages amongst us and everything they tried to move again amounted to a grand total of jack squat. It was like the air itself obeyed his command and refused to let us move. Then ignoring all the political implications of what he was about to do, Naruto-sama just started to walk casually towards the apartment like he was someone visiting a neighbour. As he walked an unnatural fog sprung up from behind him and followed his steps, then he simply knocked on the door and when it opened…."

Takane scrunched her eyebrows in interest.

"That was it. The fog suddenly burst from nowhere and it was so thick that we couldn't see anything. The only thing that signalled that he was doing something were the screams from the apartment, and there was nothing female about these screams. 10 minutes later, the only reason I even knew it was so long was because I was looking at my watch when he froze us, the fog receded like it was never there and we saw the blonde walking towards us with a girl cradled in his arms, covered with his cloak. He looked at us and nodded, giving us the ok to storm in. We crept in, expecting the worse, especially because of the screams."

Gandolfini lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes tiredly as Mei gulped before squeaking, "Th-then?"

"There was nothing."

"Ex-Excuse me?"

"There was nothing. Literally. No blood, no water from the fog, no scorch marks, nothing. We knew there were at least 5 people involved in the scheme and the screams from earlier implied at least 3 males other than the girl, but when we went in, there was only one person sitting in the middle of an empty apartment crying his eyes out. And whatever the blonde did we never knew because the man couldn't even talk anymore, he had screamed until his vocal cords burst. If we fixed them, he screamed until they burst again anyway. He just sat there and stared at the wall like it was the TV, every so often crying like in a nightmare. The other 4, we never found, alive or otherwise."

"Everybody in the squad agreed on two things. Whatever you do, don't piss him off and don't fucking hurt a girl without a good reason, especially if he's nearby. That's about it. Basically, as long as he doesn't break the law, and upholds it according to his duty, I'm not about to paint a target on my back for him to aim at."

Gandolfini suddenly chuckled, prompting confused looks, "When we wrote our reports to the dean, all the report said was 'Naruto-sama ordered us to stay. We stayed. Ten minutes later, case closed with one rescued girl, one insane man and one entire squad of 15 adult mages that are _**still**_ shitting bricks whenever Naruto-sama even looks in their direction.' Konoemon-sama took one look at those words, ordered some Panadol and shoved the file deep where he wouldn't see it for at least another 10 years. Basically my point is just be careful around him, I don't think he's bad or anything, but he isn't normal even by mage standards"

Takane and Mei looked at each other as Gandolfini left with one last wave, Mei was nearly in tears. She hated ghost stories. Takane smiled gently at her kouhai and petted the girl's head to calm her down as she looked at the setting sun.

_Hmm…. What an interesting person._

******Broken Faith******

**Play Rie Tanaka – MOTHER MOON**

Naruto glanced at the girl meekly following him. Why had he asked her to follow him again? Oh right, spur of the moment. Crap. Why was she being so meek anyway?

He led them to the same pavilion Asuna and Negi were at yesterday unknowingly and sat down on a seat before sighing and observed the girl. To be utterly honest he was very wary of the girl. She didn't have any hostile intentions towards anybody. That much he knew, but for some reason he was very uncomfortable around her but he hid that uncertainty he was feeling with a solid front.

Chao fidgeted under the piercing gaze, she felt like she was 5 years old again and had accidently painted everybody's underwear orange.

Ok so it wasn't accidental.

Naruto-jiji had soothed everybody that wanted to hang her up to dry with the washed underwear before leading her to the cliff where he watched her like he did now. Then he had scolded her. Right before he shot her a thumbs up and furtively looked around before quietly passing her a piece of paper that taught her how to create itching powder. From that day on, she could legitimately tell anyone that complained about her mad scientist tendencies to go yell at Naruto.

"Sigh, just be careful next time. I can't always bail you out."

Chao's eyes started to tear up, whether he knew it or not, those were the exact words he had used on their favourite cliff that very day. How ironic.

Before she knew it she was bawling her eyes out and she had barrelled into Naruto's midriff, hugging the blonde as tight as she could.

"Bwaaaahhh!"

Naruto stared dumbly at the girl clinging to him, what did he do? Shit. What did Chachamaru say that day about being too nice (Implied : Dumb and dense, not that he realised it.) and attracting fan girls again? Oh right, she would laser his balls to hell and back. Ok so that obviously wasn't going to work here.

Awkwardly he patted her back, only to make her cry even harder. Hmm? What was she mumbling?

"Naruto-jiji, don't leave me again…"

Ah crap. So he hadn't guessed wrong. Still... just to be safe.

Naruto lifted the girl onto his lap before leaning back in his seat with a sigh and hugged the girl tightly. It was a few minutes before her tears stopped enough and he passed the hiccupping girl a handkerchief.

She embarrassedly got off him and sat beside him quietly, "Sorry about that," she mumbled quietly.

"Sigh, so what are you doing back in the past?"

Chao stiffened, "Wha-what are you talking about Naruto-san, ahahah… this isn't some Sci-Fi movie~ I'm just a Martian, not some time traveller!"

Naruto gave her a deadpan stare, "Cut the crap."

Chao slumped back into her seat, "What gave it away?" She asked dejectedly.

Naruto smirked at her, "You just did." Chao stared at him incredulously before chuckling softly.

Naruto decided to clarify, "You really think I wouldn't notice the ramen Chao Bao Zi sells is from my own recipe with my own secret ingredient? _Well not really mine, more like a parting gift from Teuchi-ojii san. _Or the fact that you knew exactly how to wake me up without getting trapped? I know I never told anyone except a few people from Konoha."

"Then there was the fact that you felt strangely familiar. Altogether I thought it was simply coincidence and brushed it off. In conclusion, either I was being paranoid or you were a descendant of Konoha out to get me or something so I stayed away as much as possible, the other possibility was that you were a time traveller but it was so dumb I dismissed it immediately until you called me Naruto-jiji and I decided to try trick it out of you."

Chao looked at her shoes again, a mixture of happiness, shame and embarrassment at being found out so easily heating her cheeks, she looked up at the blonde and was about to confess all her plans when Naruto held up a hand to stop her, "Don't tell me. If you didn't tell me when I woke up all those months ago, it means you're following some sort of plan and ultimate goal and you couldn't risk me acting differently with the information you could give me. The risk of me doing something would probably screw a lot of things up and with what I'm going to do I don't want the extra headache."

"Bu-but you already know! It won't make any difference, you can't forget what you just realised!" Chao desperately yelled.

Naruto just grimaced, "I'm going to regret this," before he started scribbling something on a piece of paper, "This is something my Father made, your great grandfather I suppose. It'll seal the memory away until a trigger brings it back out, I'll forget this conversation happened, but there'll be a buzz in my head so I know I forgot something on purpose, the more I forget the longer and painful the buzz, that's why I didn't want you to tell me. That will be warning enough for me not to dig deeper."

"Bu-but…" Chao slumped and looked down dejectedly, even though it was a huge risk she had secretly hoped he would agree so that she could unburden everything in her chest, after being so lonely for so long.

Naruto paused in his scribbling before sighing, he sat back up and spread his arms to her, Chao looked at him as her resolve started to crumble again and tears started to fall. Naruto motioned another time; that was all Chao needed as she flung herself at him and hugged the blonde tightly again while tears splashed onto Naruto's shirt. Naruto gently cooed to the girl, "Don't forget the plan. I know you're lonely, but you're here for a reason. People don't just come back in time to see their grandfathers because he slipped a disk while chasing young girls. The choice of not telling me was the right one, time isn't something to toy around with so I don't want to know about it until you finally achieve what you came here for. But even if I forget that you are my granddaughter," Wow… that sounded really weird coming from him, "You are my family, and if the future me isn't completely senile yet, I know I taught you that we idiots from the Namikaze family never give up. Right?"

Chao tearfully nodded into his shoulder, the nostalgic scent brought forth incredible temptation, "I'll do it jii-chan. I promise."

Naruto let her go before finishing the seal and slapping it on his forehead, "When the seal activates, get out of here. If I see you around, I'll connect the dots again, and one headache is more than enough."

Chao cried harder as she pulled herself away from Naruto.

As she started to run away she heard the wind carry his words to her one last time in a soft tone, "There's another reason I don't want you to tell me. No matter how bad things were, knowing that you are my granddaughter alone is reason enough for me to not want to change things too much. At least I know I did one thing right in the future by helping to bring you into this world and I don't want to change that. Know that whatever happens I am proud of you and that I have faith in you."

Chao leapt away with one last look back.

She saw the seal glow brightly and Naruto-jiji slumped back into his seat.

She furiously wiped her tears away, and her chest filled with determination. She wasn't going to let him and Negi-jiji sacrifice themselves for her stupidity again.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto woke up just as the sun was setting.

The blonde stood up and stretched, wondering what he was doing here.

Shrugging it off he walked off.

He suddenly felt like eating ramen at Chao Bao Zi.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto sat high above the rooftops as he leaned against a bell tower. In his lap was Chachamaru, wearing a light green yukata, leaning back into him, her head resting in the crook of his neck. On her lap was a bouncing Akako in human form wearing an adorable white and pink yukata as she gobbled a cloud of candy floss. As promised he had cooked her an awesome dinner, just for her and Akako, then they had dressed up and came to find a good spot to watch the festivities.

When the fireworks started Chachamaru just sighed in contentment causing Naruto to smile in amusement and wrap his arms around her and Akako tighter.

As the tree started to glow Naruto muttered, "For a gravestone it's definitely beautiful."

Chachamaru gave an amused snort before her expression fell. Naruto kissed her cheek, "You have to go already?"

"Yes… I'm sorry I can't tell you what it is about. Master's… companion specifically said not to."

"That's alright. I'm not about to force the issue about women staying home and being housewives."

"Will you be out tonight as well?"

"Yeah, I was thinking I'd go celebrate my first Festival in so long with Negi and the others. I'll leave a blood clone with Akako."

Chachamaru gave him peck on the cheek, "Take care, and… and I'm glad I was able to watch the fireworks with you..." she blushed cutely before leaping away as fast as possible over the rooftops. Naruto sighed as he watched her go, "I guess it's just you and me tonight Akako… Akako?"

The little girl was running around the bell tower happily squealing. She had also completely thrown off the yukata and was currently completely naked.

"Sigh…."

******Broken Faith******

**Play Tommy Heavenly 6 – Unlimited Sky (Acoustic)**

Naruto walked about the festival, hands in his pockets as he enjoyed the sights, just another person in the mass of people, unknown and unseen as the merrily celebrating people bustled about, he didn't mind, after a very hectic few months he was ready for some alone time. Negi walked by his side as the two of them walked quietly, enjoying the momentary peace from 3-A, it was not that they liked being lonely, it was just they both agreed that the girls of 3-A were very high strung. He had found the red head trying to escape from Ayaka's _attentions_ and had rescued the boy with a henged clone. Stopping by an old style izakaya he smiled, "Negi, let's get something to eat and drink."

Negi shrugged with a grin, "As long as you pay." Before Naruto could reply a new voice cut in.

"Ah Naruto, Negi. Perfect timing."

The blonde perked up at his name being called in surprise. He hadn't expected any company. He looked up to see the dean of all people calling his name. With the old man was Takahata and Shizuna.

He gave a casual grin and "Yo."

"Come join us. We were just about to go for a few drinks."

Naruto smiled at the cheerful old man, "Just us old farts and a kid?"

"Muuu… nii-san! I'm not a kid anymore."

Shizuna cuddled up to Negi and protested, "That's right! Me and Negi are _not _old. Just you three." She said with a teasing grin, while Negi blushed at being cuddled like a teddy bear.

Naruto waved at her and Takahata as he joined them. Together they walked into the bustling old style _izakaya_. The dean had reserved a slot on the top floor with a balcony that faced the World Tree.

"Anybody else joining us?" Naruto questioned.

"Nope, it's just us old farts."

"I said I'm _not _an old fart!"

Takahata smiled.

The drinks came and they toasted, "To another good year at Mahora, may the Festival be as successful as always." Negi got juice.

"To Mahora!" they talked, laughed, joked and drank bottle after bottle like five normal people. Naruto and Takahata shared an amused look as the very drunk Shizuna persuaded Negi to take a few sips from her sake saucer before grinning simultaneously at the red head who was currently in a head lock as the school nurse force fed him sake.

Good view, good sake and even better entertainment. Life didn't get better than that.

It didn't take long before Negi was crying into Naruto's side while Takahata coughed a few times to hide his laugh.

"It must be hard eh Negi? Being so popular with all the girls, much less your own class filled with girls." Negi started sobbing into Takahata's shirt instead, "Waaahh! I'm like the class teddy bear instead of a teacher; I can't even handle my class properly! Everyone keeps doing whatever they want! Naruto-nii san even had to rescue me from Iincho, if I stayed any longer I would've been molested!"

"Mah mah, just be a little strict and forceful sometimes, then the girls won't push you around so much."

Naruto laughed at the kid before ruffling his hair, "You got to relax a bit Negi. Sometimes you try to act like an adult so hard that it just makes you seem more childish, the more the girls want to cuddle you more." Negi nodded tearfully at the conflicting advice.

"Naruto! What do you think of my granddaughter!" the utterly drunk dean yelled at the blonde and had Naruto been at least partly sober as well he would've seen the trap immediately.

"She's cute now, give her a few years, if she sets her sights on someone, he probably won't even get a chance to refuse. Not that he would even want to. When the time comes Negi and Konoka would make a good match!"

Negi heard and responded immediately, "No freaking way! She's so scary! Have you guys even seen what's in her room?"

The dean completely ignored Negi's outburst and pulled a piece of paper out of nowhere before handing it to the drunk blonde, "Ah good, good. Sign here."

Takahata, the least drunk of the four sweat dropped as the blonde cheerfully signed as he patted the sobbing Negi's back. Meh, the blonde was an interesting person, he had brought cheer to the academy with his peculiar ways. What Takahata really meant was watching him bumble around was insanely amusing.

Once the contract was carefully slipped into his robes again Konoemon changed the subject, "How is your problem with the World Tree?" Shizuna perked up, "Problem? What problem? Anybody with a problem has to see me!" then she fell flat on the table and started snoring.

Naruto glanced at Negi and seeing the boy was already asleep on Takahata's lap, leaned back and sighed, "I'm trying my best. I promised I won't die and I'm not giving up, I'll keep trying until the minute before I blow up, but I'm realistic enough to see that my chances of surviving are dwindling every day." He looked at the glowing tree with a bittersweet expression, "Sometimes I wonder why me? I fought loneliness, fought wars, and now I'm fighting just so I can live long enough to see myself have a family. I really wonder, what is in me that Kami would find interesting enough to keep giving me challenges." Naruto snorted, "But on the flip side, I guess I don't mind. If I sat around and grew old and senile like you. I'd die of boredom before I get the chance."

"Wait wait, what is this about dying? You look perfectly healthy!"

Naruto grinned at Takahata, "Oh I didn't tell you? My seal is cracking because I'm regenerating more power than it can absorb. Worst case scenario the seal breaks completely and the fail safe kicks in. Boom. The reason I was released in the first place was because the seal finally cracked enough for me to get out, but it still treats me as though I'm still sealed so it keeps absorbing my chakra to keep me restrained."

Halfway through his explanation the dean already began to snore.

"I..I see…"

"Ah, don't look so sad, It's not like I'm going to die tomorrow. Not sure when it'll happen since I don't know how much the thing can take. So I'm pretty much like you, you know you'll die, you just don't know when or how. I can't leave yet, look at Negi," he gestured at the sleeping boy, "I can't just leave the kid. If I do, no one's going to teach him how to grow a set of balls. It's not just him either." Naruto smiled softly, "I can't leave everybody else. Chachamaru, Akako, Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna, Chizuru. I don't want to leave until I know they're safe and successful ya know."

The only two that were still remotely awake sat side by side sipping sake. Naruto grinned slightly, "Do you know? This is most normal thing I've done my entire life. Sitting here, drinking sake on a festival with friends. Nobody to fight, no one after my life, no deadlines, no troublesome girls…."

Takahata snorted at the last one.

"Neh Takahata. If I fail, would you mind at least taking care of Chachamaru and Akako for me? I'm not saying you have to be there all the time, I know Evangeline well enough that she would do it properly. But at least drop in once in a while to check up on them."

"You would trust me enough to ask that of me?"

Naruto shrugged, "I know you're a good man and Negi trusts you, that's good enough for me. I'm not exactly popular among the rest of the mages and I can't ask Negi to do it since he can barely take care of himself."

"True." Both men looked at the snoring boy before laughing.

"By the way, I'm thinking about getting a car. Any advice?"

"Heh, sure."

The two men drank till it was early in the morning when they got up to leave Takahata staggered into Naruto, "Geh, you can barely stand, what we gonna do bout these three?" Naruto slurred out.

"Bleh, I know where Shizuna lives, I usually bunk in her house when we're drunk like this. The old fart can stay here. We do this everytime the Festival starts so owners know to shove his wrinkly ass in a free room somewhere. You can get Negi back home yourself?"

"Gahaha! You bunk with Shizuna? Man, Asuna would go bat shit crazy if she knew."

Takahata sobered, "I don't want to hurt her Naruto, but there are just too many things stopping a relationship. Chief of all the fact that I'm 30 years older than her and I don't like her that way, she's like my own daughter sometimes. She deserves someone better than me."

Naruto shook his head, it wasn't his place to comment before slapping the teacher on his back and tried to give the man a thumbs up before settling for a nod since his fingers didn't seem to want to respond properly. He bent over and hefted the boy over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

As he stumbled out of the izakaya and waved as Takahata left in another direction, the fresh air seemed to clear some of the throbbing in his head. Enough for him to start stumbling off in the direction of the female dorms. He groaned slightly at the headache, while he would still regenerate from a hangover pretty fast, when Akane was still inside him, he wouldn't even get drunk since she knew to regulate her youki to burn anything bad away, well at least he could get drunk and forget his worries now.

Naruto stumbled along with an unconscious red head slung over his shoulders, when he reached Negi's room, he banged the door slightly, not wanting everyone in the building to wake up and label him as a child abuser.

The door was flung open by a worried pyjama wearing Asuna with her hair down, "Negi! Where were you! Wait, Naruto?"

Naruto grinned at the girl, "I'm afraid we've accidentally corrupted Negi."

"What! Wait!" but before the girl could start her rant Naruto had already dropped Negi on Asuna and tried to run away before the girl decided the person that corrupted Negi was him, and it wasn't like she would believe him if he told her that Shizuna was the culprit anyway.

The only problem he could see with that decision was the fact that his legs didn't want to cooperate and Naruto fell flat on his face.

"Sigh…" Asuna face palmed as she hefted the unconscious red head and sweat dropped at the groaning blonde, "I think you better stay here for tonight. You can barely walk and your tent is two hours from here by foot." She only got a groan in reply.

She laid one mumbling idiot on his bed and tucked the boy in before moving to get the older idiot. Hefting the blonde's arm over her shoulder, she supported the stumbling blonde onto the carpet beside the couch in the living room, the idiot was too big for their couch. Sighing again, she went to get Negi cleaned up with a wet towel. They both stunk of sake.

It took an hour before she managed to wipe Negi down, especially since the boy kept trying to cling to her. Sighing, she wiped some sweat from her forehead before moving to clean Naruto. She sat beside the blonde with a small pail of warm water and a towel. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully with one arm slung over his eyes, undisturbed by the fact that he was essentially sleeping on the floor or of the moonlight and the lights of the city that shone through the window. In the dark Asuna blushed slightly as she lifted one hand to caress his cheeks gently. Hesitantly she pulled her fingers back and shook herself as if to chastise herself for being stupid before she started to wipe his face with a towel.

A hand snapped up to grab the hand holding a towel to his cheek before her entire body was flipped onto the floor, right into his arms. Asuna's breath hitched at the feeling of one arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her body flush against his own as her heart pounded and blood rushed to her face at their intimate position. For a few heart thumping seconds she waited for any signs that the blonde was doing this on purpose. Embarassing her on purpose.

Nothing. Naruto was completely asleep. Inside, she tried to make her body forget the fact that this wasn't the first time it was in this position nor was it wise to want to stay here in his arms, that his warmth and firm yet soft torso was _not _a good place to fall asleep in. The fact that he was breathing softly on her ear wasn't helping her body make up its mind at all.

She kept herself frozen for just a bit longer, inwardly persuading herself that it was because she wanted to make sure he wouldn't wake up and find her in this embarrassing position. Once she was sure he wouldn't wake up she quietly tried to wriggle her way out of his arms.

For something made of flesh and muscle, they were as effective as any cage of steel. Biting her lower and lip and softly cursing the blonde, Asuna struggled harder, only for Naruto's breath to hitch and the arm around her waist to tighten, pulling her body snugly against his own. Asuna slowly peeked back over her shoulder to see unfocused eyes looking right back at her.

Huh…. She never knew his eyes had green flecks in them. Some things you just don't see until you are less than 3 inches away.

She was about to hit her limit and slap the blonde when the blonde unexpectedly smiled sadly at her before burying his face in the nape of her neck. She could feel a few tears fall onto her skin…. Wait… He was crying? When the blonde started to place gentle kisses on her neck she forcefully suppressed the pleasant chills that wanted to run down her back at the sensation of his lips dancing on her skin by going as still as a rock, "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry." The blonde kept mumbling lowly in between nuzzling her neck and placing soft feather like kisses there.

Asuna who was still as stiff as a rock at the arguably pleasurable sensation forced herself to breathe and respond just as softly, "So-sorry for what?" She convinced herself that the fact she wiggled closer into his embrace was just so she could hear the blonde's reply.

"I'm sorry Akane… I can't go to where you are yet. I still have a lot of things to do, I promised them I won't go yet… I'm so sorry…. I can't die yet." His mumblings slowly became incoherent as he sobbed into the back of her pyjamas.

Asuna's eyes softened. Stupid bastard was hiding something like this from them and taking the entire burden on himself again. She looked up at the full moon through the glass and relaxed her body, revelling in the feeling of being cocooned by the blonde's arm.

"Sorry Akane, I guess I'll have to take care of this idiot for you for just a while longer. Heh… but I can't help but be jealous of how devoted he is to you, you are one lucky bitch."

She settled back onto the bicep she was using as a pillow and gave a contented sigh. Might as well enjoy it if she couldn't get away.

Just then she heard the sound of a door opening. Hope blossomed on her face and fell just as quickly as she realised exactly who the door was hiding. A grinning Konoka.

Shii…..

A grinning Konoka who then went back into her room, came back out with a comforter, draped it over herself before tapping Naruto's shoulder.

One second, one swift move and one quiet happy squeal later, the three of them were wrapped in the comforter, one girl using each arm as a pillow.

Damn. She needed to face palm really urgently, or better yet, smack a certain princess upside the head but her arms were still being pinned by Naruto.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto stared at the clear blue sky as planes streaked across it, leaving trails of clouds in the air. The whole of Mahora was buzzing with voices, cheers, the sound of running feet and laughing children, causing a adorable kimono clad Akako that was currently being held by Naruto to squirm, wanting to join the festivities. People were everywhere Naruto looked; hundreds of them, all from a vast array of ages. The majority were teenagers or pre-teens, as befitting of a campus, but there was no shortage of adults; the family of students or just people coming to visit the great festival, that if Yue was to be believed, had morphed into a worldwide event.

She had spent quite some time last night explaining to the two just how big the festival was going to be and some of the things to expect. Like how a vast majority of people may wear costumes for fun, or that millions of yen regularly exchanged hands nearly every festival.

With wide eyes, he, Akako and Negi watched the parade; horses, elephants, giraffes, blob monsters, giant balloons floating in the sky, all accompanied by costumed men and women putting on a show. Naruto neither knew nor cared which animals were real or fake, though he smirked as a giant lizard (a dinosaur) nearly stepped on the very pale Negi. Ah… he remembered his own first hangover, something every man had to go through as a rite of passage into adulthood. Although…. puking on every major building in Konoha for fun probably wasn't very smart.

"_This is it! The 78th Annual Mahora Festival Starts Now!"_ a loud voice announced over the hum of people.

"So, where are we going first?" Naruto asked, shifting Akako into a more comfortable position. The very pale Negi waved his hand to signify it was up to him; he didn't think it was safe to open his mouth and not barf everything up immediately. What the hell happened yesterday? All he remembered was being smothered by something soft then bam. Nothing. Nevermind, he'd just blame Naruto-nii san. Asuna was right; blaming Naruto for everything was incredibly therapeutic sometimes.

While Negi was wearing his usual green suit, Naruto had put on a black t-shirt, a dull, almost red-orange jacket, and light blue jeans, his pony tail tied in a bun today.

The girls had already split off to do their own thing, or more accurately the Haunted House that 3-A had spent the last two weeks working on. Although Naruto did wonder why Asuna refused to look him in the eye this morning. She practically threw together breakfast, jammed some toasts down his throat and left with one in her own mouth. Konoka was no help at all when he asked. She just laughed this really disturbing dainty laugh before smiling (leering) at him and gave a very weird explanation, "Accident that nearly led to temporary blood loss."

"I guess we should get to The Haunted House then," Naruto answered. "I wanna see how is it doing, the girls worked really hard on it." he elaborated.

"That sounds like a good id-" Chamo began, before he was cut short as his perch began to fall from beneath him. Negi, said perch, had begun to sway.

Naruto extended a hand to steady the boy, stopping him from falling over. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it."

"Get used to it my ass. I'm never going near an _izakaya_ with you again." Negi muttered under his breath with not a little malice in his voice.

Naruto chuckled nervously, Negi seemed to really let loose when he was hung over, "Gomen gomen. Anyway, come on, daylights burning, and we have a busy schedule today." With a brief reassuring pat on the shoulder, they were off towards 3-A's classroom.

Before the two had even managed to get to the stairs, they found the corridors crowded by people, all queued up in a line along one wall, all the way down to the ground floor.

"I wonder what the lines for?" Negi asked.

"You don't think it could be the Haunted House do you?"

"Maybe."

As they turned onto the corridor where their class was located, Naruto's suspicion was instantly proven correct. The line ended just short of a desk nearby their class room.

It didn't take long for the girls to take note of them and usher them closer.

"Negi-kun! Evil Naruto-sensei! Naruto-san!" Yuna, Makie and Sakurako greeted cheerfully but not before the other two gave Makie a weird look at her title for the blonde.

The rest of the girls soon followed. All were in rather elaborate costumes; Yuna in her tight red cat outfit, Makie in a black yukata and Sakurako was in a very risqué outfit; it was black in colour, covering only her torso and groin. Her arms were covered by black gloves that ended just before her shoulders; everything she wore had the top edge covered in white fur similar to Yuna. Her legs and shoulders and even hips were completely bare, apart from her black slippers. To finish the outfit off, she wore a pair of bat ears and a snake hairclip, as well as a set of fangs in her mouth that made her more cute than scary.

In contrast to Yuna and Sakurako, Akira and Ayaka were in rather conservative outfits; the former wearing a uniform similar appearance to Sayo, a black sailor uniform, and the latter wearing an off white, flowing dress.

Only two other people were out in the entrance; Fuuka, wearing a long hooded robe and holding a giant butterbur leaf, probably imitating a Minutian, over her head; Haruna, who was wearing a black robe that extended to her feet, and a hat which showed a white bat on the front.

Scratch that, they were _all _more cute than scary.

"Naruto-san! Negi-sensei! Come and try our Haunted House!"

Negi glanced at his watch before agreeing but Naruto shook his head sadly. He really did want to try the attractions out but his patrol started in a few minutes, "I'm sorry girls, I can't make it now. I have something to do but I'm done by evening, so I'll come by then."

"Awwww…."

Waving at the girls and Negi, Naruto left to find a secluded spot where he could take to the roofs. Akako giggled and urged her father to leap higher with every jump. Smiling, the blonde simply obliged.

He landed in an empty clearing behind the church. His sector was one of the furthest from the World Tree, just barely inside the red zone but he doubted anybody would be confessing in a church, an orphanage or the child care centre near it.

Forming a few clones, he instructed them to form a perimeter and watch out for confessing couples while he walked towards a field nearby with Akako's small hand in his where had seen children playing. He figured he would let Akako play with them while he watched.

"Oh my… Naruto-san? What brings you here?"

Naruto quirked one eyebrow, he hadn't expected her to be the one taking care of all the children today.

Gently nudging Akako towards the other children he sat under the tree's shade beside Chizuru, "I'm surprised to see you here. Aren't you busy with the Haunted House?"

Chizuru gently smiled at the children, "Hmm…. My shift is tomorrow. Today I'm volunteering with the day care. I suppose you could say I don't care much for crowds, and with today being the opening for the Festival, it'll be the busiest day."

Naruto grinned, "And some would say taking care of children is even more stressful then taking care of a stall or something."

"Fufufu, they are all good children. Right?" she called out to the kids sweetly.

Everyone of them gulped at the sweet tone before nodding frantically while Akako simply gave a cute thumbs up in reply before jumping on a boy and rolling him around in the grass.

Naruto didn't know if he should sympathise with them or run away screaming. He settled for just nodding neutrally.

They sat there quietly with the occasional yelp or yell of joy and enjoyed the warm breeze that blew waves across the grass field like an artificial sea while the kids rolled around.

A slight weight settled on Chizuru's shoulder and she peeked down to see Naruto slowly dozing off in the peacefulness, the shade, the warmth and the winds rhythm worked together to lull him like a lullaby.

Smiling slightly, the girl shifted her weight and slowly moved the blonde without waking him up so that Naruto's head was resting on her lap. She hesitated for a bit before running her fingers through his hair, a slow rumbling emanated from his chest, like a large cat purring. Chizuru grinned slightly. She felt it was an apt comparison for some reason. He was such a big cat sometimes. Incredibly lazy on the surface and when the mood hit; he gambolled around like a large kitten but when it came down to it; he was one of the fiercest, most reliable people she knew and on the other hand, mysterious and dark. It was such a pity seeing him pushing himself so hard when he thought no one could see.

He seemed to forget she lived in the female dorm's top floor and since her room's window faced east, she could see his clearing from her room well enough, especially late at night when the flashes woke up her up.

Oh wait, she never told him. Pity. She probably shouldn't mention the telescope either.

A few minutes later a yawning Akako crawled onto her father's chest and fell asleep splayed out on him while nuzzling his torso. Naruto's arms automatically wrapped around her and petted her head causing the little girl to purr softly in time with her father.

Chizuru's grin grew wider; she wished she brought a camera.

A small group of girls gathered and whispered among themselves curiously before pushing a brown haired girl, a regular at the day care, forward. The girl poked her tongue out at the other girls before tip toeing softly up to Chizuru and looked curiously at the blonde and Akako, she looked at Chizuru, her eyes big and bright with curiosity, "Chizuru… are you his this?" she wiggled her pinky finger at the auburn haired girl.

Chizuru just smiled mischievously at the girl before leaning down to place a soft kiss Naruto's forehead and the top of Akako's head before winking at the small girl. The small girl quietly squealed before running off to the other girls to share the gossip.

******Broken Faith******

Sapphire eyes snapped open. Crap, he had fallen asleep. Where was he and where were his clones. Quickly glancing at his wristwatch he groaned slightly. He had fallen asleep for nearly 5 hours. It was 4.45 p.m. and he really didn't want to miss Negi's first date. Those drinks last night affected him more then he realised.

He tried to get up only to realise there was something or someone on his chest. Glancing down he noticed a peacefully sleeping Akako.

"Shh…. The kids are asleep."

Looking up at the voice he finally realised why his pillow was so soft. Suppressing a groan as a gamut of expressions ran across his face, he looked around to get his balance, sprawled in the shade all around them were sleeping children in various positions. Chizuru herself was surrounded by girls leaning on her and gently snoring. Rarely did anybody get by his sleeping defences **naturally**. Those that did usually truly had no bad intentions whatsoever, be it lust or anger and were as pure as they came and yet this girl walked right through them as if they weren't there at all.

It was more technical than that but that wasn't the point.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep on you, are you tired?" he whispered back.

"A little. But I don't mind."

Gently lifting Akako up, Naruto sat up and careful not to jolt Akako, placed her where he had been just seconds ago, "I have to go to the toilet. I'll be back as soon as possible."

Without thinking about what he was doing, he quickly leaned down and pecked her cheek before silently walking away with long confident strides.

Chizuru watched him go with a slight blush as she brushed the spot where Naruto's lips had touched her cheek. That was unexpected… but not entirely unpleasant either.

Naruto reached the church and ducked into a shadowed alcove before forming two clones, dispersing one to request a situation report and ordering the other to spend the rest of the day with Akako and Chizuru.

Once he had confirmed nothing had happened, even the one single confession in the church was disturbed by a clone disguised as a barking dog, the blonde leapt off.

******Broken Faith******

As soon as he got within the city he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. What the hell? There was more than one Negi running around the place, and it didn't feel like clones either. The signature was too solid to be a replication.

He moved towards the nearest one that seemed to be walking around with Mana.

Dropping down from the roof he frowned at the boy, "Negi? Is that you?"

"Nii-san?"

"Naruto-san." The dark skinned girl greeted him calmly.

"What the hell is going on? I sense more than one of you."

"Oh… Oh! Errr, you just came back from your patrol right?"

"Yeah….?" Naruto looked weirdly at the boy.

"I'll explain later, just head towards the Western Quadrant. Track the signature that's closest to Asuna, Haruna and Konoka right now, and don't say anything about seeing multiple me's until I explain the situation." Negi hurriedly explained while the ermine stayed uncharacteristically quiet.

Naruto rubbed his temples, "Alright, but I want a full explanation later got it?"

"Don't worry. You'll get one. Oh and before I forget….."

"What?"

Negi walked up to Naruto smiling innocently before punching Naruto in the gut, "Don't worry. You'll understand what that was for."

Naruto groaned before flipping Negi the bird.

Mana smirked as the blonde leapt away, watching him get floored like that was very amusing, "That was a good punch Negi-sensei."

"I know. I wanted to hit him harder but I suppose it was my fault to start with." Negi replied with a similar smirk.

Mana just laughed.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto landed behind the three girls, his confusion only increased as he saw another Negi leaning against the railing of a roof with Nodoka beside him.

"What's going on here?"

"Naruto-sensei? Wait never mind, just be quiet, we're just getting to the good part." Konoka urgently whispered.

"Um… ok…."

Pushing his questions and what promised to be a blooming headache aside for now, he hunkered down between Konoka and Asuna to watch the dating duo.

**With Negi**

"I-I'm sorry about that! Tho-those two were my er…co-workers you could say."

"A-ano… it's alright, I don't mind."

Silence fell as the two of them fidgeted, not knowing what to say, Negi felt like the entire date had been ruined because of him. He had to do something to fill the silence and get it back on track.

'_Crap, crap, what would Naruto-nii san do? Oh right, something stupid.'_

"It's a nice day to talk isn't it? Talking is nice."

"Um... yes it is."

_Thud Thud Thud Thud_

"A-ano… Negi-sensei? Do you hear something?"

The thudding stopped.

Negi listened for a bit, "I'm sorry I don't hear anything."

**With Naruto**

Naruto's jaw dropped. '_Talking is nice? Who the hell taught him his pick up lines?'_

"Excuse me, I need to do something." He muttered to the three giggling girls beside him. He walked up to a wall and started pounding his head against it. He swore he could feel the earth shake slightly as every straight male on the planet felt the urge to do the same thing he was doing.

_Thud Thud Thud Thud_

"What are you doing! Get back here, you're making too much noise!" Asuna hissed as loudly and angrily as she could. Naruto meekly went back to her side.

**With Negi**

'_Shit, nothing is going right! How am I supposed to fix this!'_

Negi slumped down onto the railing and sighed, "I'm sorry Nodoka-san. The date was going so well until my co-workers disturbed us. We were having such a nice time too; it's entirely my fault."

"No, no," she hurriedly tried to correct him. "There's nothing for you to apolo-"

"I know!" he interrupted her. "Please, tell me if there is anything I can do to make up for it?"

"Make it up to me?" she asked confusedly.

**With Naruto**

_Beep Beep BEEP BEEP_

"Dammit Naruto! What's that damn beeping! They're going to find out we're here!"

The blonde fumbled around in his pockets to find the source of the beeping. When he found it, he looked at it dumbly. The tracking device was pointing straight at the couple on the other side of the roof.

"Ah, crud. That idiot owes me for this." Naruto jumped out of the bushes.

"Naruto! Get him before he ruins everything!" all three girls hissed angrily.

**With Negi**

"Anything!" he pressed. "You just name it and I'll do it! For you, I'll even use magic!"

"_DYYYYNAAAA"_

"If-if it's okay,"

"_MMMIIICCCCCCC"_

"I-I want a d-deep kiss with"

"_EEEENNNNNTRYYYYYYYYYY!" _

"You." she said shyly.

In slow motion she looked up just in time to see Negi in the process of getting kicked away; her class room teacher's face was etched in surprise, his eyes hilariously wide, his mouth opened in an 'O' shape and a booted foot was connected to his cheek. Her eyes slowly trailed up the foot, a lean muscled thigh and ended in a tall blonde that she vaguely recognised as her only male classmate. Briefly she wondered why he seemed to be hovering in mid air with one leg stretched out as if executing a slow motion high jump kick.

Offhandedly she noticed his mouth moving in slow motion, forming words that sounded suspiciously like, "Oh Crap."

Time finally resumed its normal pace and the blonde finally landed, staring at her in shock before looking up into the sky.

A giant white column of light was heading right for him.

"Fu….."

******Broken Faith******

**AN : I'm seriously worried about the pairings lol. I have absolutely no clue how to fit all them in with equal time, especially considering my writing style.**

**Seriously though, my role model for NegimaxNaruto crossovers, Ashaman of Fire, does it way better. He tells the overall picture way better than I ever can, funnier, more original scenes and includes almost all the girls. I'm not that good, and I know a lot of my characters don't get enough screen time. I'm working on it, promise. Although I suppose the characters I do focus on get more development than his does.**

**Oh btw, Enlightened End? I visited your profile. Wink. I hope my story is good enough to satisfy the warning on your profile.**


	17. Vindice Deux, Divine Vengeance

**Broken Faith 17**

**Vindice Deux, Divine Vengeance**

**Disclaimer : Don't own anything. Nope…. Not Naruto, Not Negima, nothing. **

**P.S. I wasn't going to upload this until i got 400 reviews but I was only short of about 15 so I figured, what the hell and just posted it anyway.**

Enlightened End : Lol. I really wasn't expecting anything from that comment, simply that I hoped I was doing well enough, but I appreciate the good gesture of reviewing all my chapters. *Blush*

And thanks to LordGale119 for reminding me about Kalafina and Yuki Kajiura, well known for their songs in Kara no Kyoukai. I can no longer call myself a faithful Nasu-verse fan for forgetting them T^T.

Yeah... anyway I still haven't really caught up to the manga, I only recently read till Jakan pulling off girl's pantsu. That's right, up till now I was writing this fic more or less blind, only a bit of ideas about what happened in canon and occasionally going on to check the veracity of what I wrote, especially the parts with a lot of dialogues. Lol.

Best. Fight. Ever. I can totally see Naruto and Rakan, the two idiots that they are (Or at least a matured Naruto in canon would. The current one wouldnt know what panties were unless Sakura held his hands and stuck it up her skirt.. and thats if she wore one. I expect she wears something like men's briefs, considering how... masculine she is. ), having a panty stealing competition to see who can get the most off. Still I never expected the amount of shit I have to write and shovel before we can finally get to Mundus Magicus. Wish me luck.

**Soundtrack List **

Yuki Kajiura – Song of Storm and Fire

Kalafina – STORIA

******Broken Faith******

_He landed and stared at her in shock before looking up into the sky. _

_A giant white column of light was heading right for him._

"_Fu….." _was all Naruto managed to get out before the pillar of light slammed into him, blowing dust and dirt everywhere.

Everyone immediately shut their eyes from the glare of the light and the dust cloud.

One by one they squinted nervously; this couldn't be good. However they only saw a blonde whose eyes were screwed shut. A few tense moments passed but the blonde stayed stationary. Slowly each of them crept forward, Asuna was the one to reach the blonde first, Konoka followed shortly, "Err... Naruto? You alright?"

Eyelids peeled back carefully to show one blue eye squinting back unsurely at her before they swivelled downwards; Naruto patted himself down and let out a sigh of relief. There didn't seem to be any after effects.

Then realizing as if remembering exactly why he was here the blonde looked over his shoulder and yelled, "Springfield! Your ass is grass when I get my hands on them!"

He made to move towards the small redhead but his body suddenly stopped responding, instead he felt two soft orbs in the palms of his hands.

Looking down in confusion to where his palms were he squeezed a little as if he couldn't believe what they were doing, only to get a soft moan and a throaty giggle in reply.

"Oh my, Naruto-sensei..."

He could literally hear his brain crash and burn before it rebooted and finally processed the fact that he was grabbing Konoka and Asuna's breasts. He squeezed them again; just to be sure he wasn't currently under some sort of drug induced hallucination. The very menacing aura that filled the rooftop gave him a very resounding negative reply, causing him to look back up at the owner of the anatomy he was currently squeezing. The red headed one. The black haired one was too busy giggling.

"**Naruto..."**

"Eeep." Naruto franctically made pulling motions, but his palms didn't move from their resting spot, "I swear to Kami, I didn't know, I can't stop them!"

Asuna drew back one fist, fully intending on planting it in Naruto's face and rearranging his features in the process if the blaze of energy that surrounded her fist was any indication.

"Eeep!"

But before she could let her fist fly, the palm on her breast had already shifted onto her shoulder and flipped her onto her back with a yelp. A grunt from beside her told her that Konoka had suffered the same treatment. "Wha?"

The blonde started mechanically walking toward a paling Nodoka. The only part of his anatomy that seemed to be responding to his orders was his head, and it was currently too busy shouting in panic to help the rest of his body, "Gaah! Help! I can't control my body!"

He had already reached the white as a ghost Nodoka and his arms outstretched to grab her before Setsuna finally regained her senses and slashed at the blonde to drive him back.

The blonde side stepped the attack and leapt back out of her attack zone before mechanically walking forward once more. Only this time a gust of wind from Konoka halted him in his tracks while Asuna readied her _harisen _beside Setsuna and her _nodachi. _All three of them forming ranks around the stunned Nodoka.

"Ahhh! Don't attack, that's gonna hurt dammit!"

"Then don't move!"

"I can't help it! My body won't listen!"

"Fufufufu. So amusing. Like a toy. Can we make this permanent?" No one replied because they were all busy sweat dropping and making sure they didn't make eye contact with the flaky princess.

Naruto mechanically ran forward again, ducking under a slap from the _harisen, _he tripped Asuna before kicking her towards Setsuna who had to jump up to catch the flying girl.

While the other two were busy he turned his attention towards a grinning Konoka, "My, my, aren't you aggressive today..."

"Konoka... Just... make me faint. Do _not _molest my body again."

In response the girl pouted before throwing gusts of cold wind at him, trying to at least slow or freeze the blonde, Naruto ducked under one blast before jumping over another, steadily making his way towards the girl in miko uniform.

When Konoka saw that her attacks weren't making much of an effort she stowed the fans away before drawing two steel ones from the seal on the back of her neck. These were her only melee combat weapons. Steel fans with razor sharp edges when opened, made specifically for her by Naruto. Naruto's body immediately drew a small knife to parry the girl's vertical slash before ducking a _harisen_ from behind.

"Stand still you idiot! How are we supposed to make you unconscious if you keep dodging!"

"I can't help it dammit! Wait, attack me! I'm about to jump!"

And jump he did, avoiding a reverse side cut from Setsuna who had dashed into the fray, straight into a sideways head smack from the harisen before Konoka landed a direct axe kick that sent him rocketing into the ground.

"Fufufu... at least now we know how to deal with him... Can I play now?"

"Konoka-ojou sama..."

Asuna glared at the groaning Naruto before replying, "Play? How do you plan on playing? The idiot's gonna keep trying to kiss Honya-chan, we should hit him with everything we got right now."

"Hm hmm...it doesnt hurt to try..." Konoka smiled slyly before stepping forward, "Neh... Naruto-sensei... I wish you would tell me if you liked touching mine and Asuna's boobs."

Asuna immediately spluttered loudly.

Everyone looked to the side and saw the World Tree glow slightly before emitting another pillar of light.

Naruto looked up and groaned, "This is not my da-"

The pillar of light slammed into him.

Negi who had been hiding behind a table beside Nodoka while clutching his ass slowly stepped out, feeling more confident now that they seemed to be able to control Naruto.

When they could see again, they found Naruto squirming on the floor, one hand clamping his mouth shut while the other tried to pry it off. From their position they could tell that he was screaming something but it was muffled by his hand.

Asuna couldn't help the slight grin despite blushing at the rather personal question, it served the bastard right. This was divine payback for his torturous training. She nudged Setsuna who couldn't help the grin as well.

"Mmpmmh!"

Konoka leered at the blonde from the safety of her position, "What was that? I can't hear you Naruto. Speak up!"

"Mmmppphhes!"

"Louder!"

His hand was slowly being pulled back while Naruto's panicked eyes roved around for any exits for a strategic retreat. Unfortunately...

"Yeess... they were very soft and firm." A slight squeak escaped his traitorous lips as the blonde blushed furiously, just then his body leapt up and started towards Nodoka again.

"Wha! He's still trying to kiss Honya-chan! Stop him dammit." All four of them leapt to intercept the blonde who was crying anime tears.

"Someone KILL me! This is soo embarrassing."

"Fufufu, neh Asuna, do you think we could override that kiss Nodoka command somehow?" Konoka whispered at the red head as she blocked a punch with her fans. Even when he couldn't control it, simply blocking his blows really hurt, Konoka reminded herself.

"How?" Asuna urgently whispered as she flailed her harisen at the blonde, keeping him off balance for Setsuna to dash in guerrilla style and for Negi to throw spell after spell at the blonde.

The blonde dodged everything before landing in a handstand in the midst of the three girls and fired of rapid kicks to everyone in range, Asuna who was the slowest of Naruto's three students couldn't get away in time and barely managed to blocked a direct blow with her fan, "Dammit blondie, if you're going so far just to kiss Honya-chan, I'd like to see you kiss a girl you actually like." She grunted as she withstood the force of the kick.

The World Tree flared up brightly as everyone turned as one to stare incredulously at Asuna. She looked dumbstruck, "I didn't mean that! It wasn't a wish!"

"Asuna-san!"

"Ma, ma, I was going to ask something to that effect anyway. You just did it faster. But i never knew you were so brave Asuna-chan."

"Whats going on here?" a regal voice interrupted the dumbstruck party. All of them, Naruto excluded looked up to see at least 8 people, including a blonde in black standing on a roof, a cute red headed girl beside her and a few other familiar faces.

"Takane-san, Mei-san! Seryuhiko-sensei! Gandolfini-sensei!" Negi breathed in relief, it would be easier to get Naruto now, even while his head was whining and shouting instructions at them, his body was far more than capable of slipping away from their attacks, even by the smallest margin. It was infuriating how the tall blonde could bounce, spin and twist in mid air like that. Just then the largest pillar of light so far slammed forcefully into the roof, blowing everyone that was near ground zero back.

The teachers who had just arrived struggled against the gale force winds, "What's going on? I thought you would have learned your lesson about rules Negi-san." Her tone was one of imperious disdain, showing her disapproval of the situation as she reached Negi's side.

"There was an accident. A girl was about to confess to me. Naruto interrupted me in time, but in return he was accidentally confessed to instead. From there things sort of... uh... spiralled?"

Takane looked disbelievingly at the small boy, "Spiralled? We all felt the flare of magical energy once. We thought it was settled because **You** were near here. Instead we feel another damn flare from the World Tree, worried we all left our posts to see what was happening and you say this was an accident?" behind the furious blonde girl her mage co-workers nodded solemnly while Mei quietly put Nodoka to sleep before taking her somewhere safe. A civilian had no place in a mage battle was what her Onee-sama would say.

"And now, we arrive to find yet another flare, and this time it's so big people are bound notice no matter how dumb they are!"

**Play Yuki Kajiura – Song of Storm and Fire**

Just then the flare receded to show a stationary Naruto.

Asuna stepped forward warily, "Na-naruto?" Something was very wrong.

He turned to face her, but this time his eyes were blank, "Wish understood."

Far faster than he was at first the blonde disappeared from his spot. Asuna's neck prickled as time seemed to stop and an overwhelming feeling appeared behind her but she couldn't move fast enough to beat him back, her body seemed to freeze and for those few microseconds she could feel his hands reaching out to grab her only for a shadow fist to throw him away roughly. The blonde flipped through the air and landed completely unruffled.

Asuna fell to her knees, so this was Naruto when he had no reason to hold back? No... this wasn't all the blonde could do. The realization made her shiver a little. For that one instant, the feel of his gaze on her neck felt like something completely inhuman was bearing down on her. He hadn't even used his presence then, it was all him, nothing but the force of his personality, attitude and skills. It felt like something implacable.

The blonde looked around, even enthralled his blank eyes burned with calculating intelligence, "15 opponents confirmed." He snapped his fingers. '_Tenkuu no Tenbin.'_

Eeveryone froze completely, not one finger twitched as the blonde watched them with purple blazing eyes.

"Wha-what is this?" Someone shouted, Gandolfini replied with gritted teeth, "I don't know, but he can freeze anyone he likes, he did this before on our missions."

Setsuna forced herself to calm down and extended her presence to fight his technique, it lifted his freezing effect enough for her to move and it calmed her down enough to make thinking easier, internally she promised to apologize to Naruto for revealing his secrets later, "Keep fighting! He can only freeze more than 10 people for 30 seconds maximum. He won't be able to use this technique for another 15 minutes after that!"

She dashed at him, using the tactics he had taught her, hit and run against superior opponents, but every time right before her blade neared him her entire body slowed enough for him to simply side step her, she jumped back and tried again, only for the same feeling to dull her blade and slow her movements enough for the blonde to kick her back roughly with a snap kick. This was crazy, she knew he could do this, but he had never shown her and she never truly believed him until now. Such power and he still claimed he was limited. The realization made her shiver a little. It was the way he fought, skills and power was important but with Naruto, there was an added facet to battles. He played with the mind. His moves and _parlour tricks, _despite the mundane way he labelled them, were designed to make his opponents feel weak, utterly inadequate, he slowly brought you to ruin, and it made you feel like your defeat was already decided. No matter strong you were it was useless, when your fists suddenly felt heavy and slow. It felt like defeat was inevitable.

The blonde in the mean time had just stood stationary, surveying everybody there before six equally stoic clones split away from the main body, five of them leapt away while the sixth retreated to a safe spot.

"He made clones! They're getting away!" one of the teachers shouted unnecessarily.

Gandolfini grunted before successfully moving his limbs again, "His spell ended! Five of you chase after his clones!" a few of the newcomers nodded but before they could follow the clones that had jumped away they were intercepted in mid air by a thick wall of earth.

Rejoining the rest, all of them charged at the blonde simultaneously only for him to draw in a breath and fire multiple fire balls in a spread shot before stomping his foot, causing lightning to ripple outwards from his feet in a dangerous arc.

"Gwah! He can use spells without chanting!"

This time Konoka shouted, "That's not it, it's that clone!" she pointed to the sixth one who had remained as she leapt to the air to avoid the ground lightning attack and twisted to dodge a few fireballs, "That clone chants and channels the energy to the original to release whenever he wants!"

Well not really chant, more like make handsigns but she kept that fact to herself. The blonde had showed her the way he fought with his equivalent of spells to allow her to practice against another mage sort off. His jutsu was faster than spells, more flexible, more potent and his arsenal was incredible, spanning over the 5 major elements except light and dark. When she told him that she wondered why he never used them he had smiled at her, a chilling smile, and said there was no reason for him to use them. Then he had split into 100 clones. Each one of them fired one spell simultaneously, from every angle, every element and each spell was fast and powerful and his grand finale, a great screeching orb. The barrier he was using at the time completely disintegrated and yet her best spells never managed to even dent that thing. She understood why, had he wanted to he could have just bombarded everything straight to hell. But he preferred to play around. The realization made her shiver a little.

Asuna who had simply punched the floor with enough brute force to create a rampart of cement, protecting her and a few of the slower teachers from the lightning and fire attacks, grunted before smashing the cement wall with her _harisen_ causing it to rain deadly cement on the clone.

Once she confirmed her attack had hit she shouted out, "The clone is gone, knock the original out only, he doesn't know what his doing!"

A few of the teachers were slightly startled at being commanded by a middle schoolgirl but showed no further hesitance in following her orders.

Setsuna concentrated on dodging the attacks before dashing in to cut the blonde bit by bit before jumping back out of the danger zone, "Damn, what's going on? He didn't react this way earlier when the other wishes were made!"

A tinkling laughter answered her question, everyone looked up to see a small blonde girl sitting casually out of range, sipping some sake, "The other wishes weren't something he wanted to do so he could resist those partly, and I would applaud him for his strength of will, but now, he can't resist precisely because it's something he _**wants **_to do."

"Evangeline-sensei! What are you doing here?"

The vampire snorted, "Even the blind and deaf could sense the huge amounts of spells being used and the flare of magic in this area, others are already converging in this area. I just thought it would be fun to watch and arrived first."

She smiled evilly, "And I wasn't wrong on both counts."

Shadows leapt above her as reinforcements arrived. It seemed like every teacher or magically aware person in Mahora was here, drawn by the huge flare released by the World Tree barely seconds ago.

"Crystallizatio Tellustris!"

"Capteus Flammeus!"

Several other restraining spells hit Naruto and rooted the blonde to the spot.

A blonde woman in a suit landed next to Gandolfini, "What happened? We thought sending 10 of you in would be more than enough to suppress whatever caused the second flare. When the third flare hit we got worried and I decided to mobilize every spare mage we had as well."

Gandolfini sighed in relief, "Touko, glad you could make it. We didn't get here in time. Someone was confessing and Naruto-sama tried to stop it, he was only partly successful. Instead of the original recipient, he was hit instead. From there, we tried another wish to cancel the first one but it only made things worse."

Asuna quietly decided to not let Gandolfini know the true version of events and gave a quiet sheepish chuckle as an apology.

Just then with a roar, Naruto broke free of his binds.

Most of those present gulped at the display of pure power, enough to rip at least 7 restraining spells apart in fifteen seconds.

The blonde didn't react; he just stood stoically watching everyone that stood before him before speaking in a mechanical tone again, "Opponent count exceeds twenty person limit. Switching to anti-personnel tactics." He pulled out a card and intoned, "Adeat"

Everyone tensed and readied themselves as they saw the blonde, now clad in a red trenchcoat and a white mask that was no better than his previous blank expression; heft a rifle in his hands.

"A-a sniper rifle? And what does he mean anti-personnel? He can't snipe all of us at once."

Negi paled at the words, he had a fair idea of what was about to happen but before he could make a move, Naruto spun the rifle in his hands and spoke again.

"**Vindice Deux, aim at the stars and strike them down."**

The rifle blurred into a very familiar bulky canon.

"Oh crap." Without another word Negi burst forwards and fired of a '_Fulguratio Albicans' _at the blonde's head.

"Wha-what are you doing Negi? That was a lethal attack!" Asuna demanded from her homeroom teacher. Negi didn't let up; instead he activated his Cantus Bellax and engaged Naruto in melee combat before shouting over his shoulder, "Listen to me! Do **NOT **let him fire that thing! It will decimate at least an entire block easily!"

All the teachers present paled before jumping at the blonde.

"His weapon requires him to stand still for at least 3 seconds to charge a shot at lowest power, anything longer than that and this block will go up in smoke! If he manages to fire it off, use your strongest defensive spells and then attack him as soon as you can, the canon has a 6 second cool down cycle before he can charge another shot! Just keep him busy and use lethal attacks, anything weaker than that he will just brush off or dodge easily!"

**Flashback**

"_Bwahaha! Good. Very good Negi!" a blonde yelled from within the forest of stone. "I can tell you're learning."_

_The two of them were practicing in Evangeline's resort again, a day after Naruto's lecture to them in class._

"_But since I was the one to give you the answer, I don't think it's fair that you should get off so easily, don't you agree? So I'll just have to take this up a notch."_

"_Up a notch?" a confused voice asked him from somewhere else in the rock forest._

_Naruto smiled, "Yes, __**Vindice Deux! Aim for the stars and strike them down**__!" he roared._

"_Wha-what?" Negi frantically looked around but couldn't see anything and finally realized that Naruto had purposely given him a tactic that had its ups and downs and was fully expecting him to fall into the trap instead of figuring out another way or at least circumventing the inherent weakness of not being able to see your opponent, especially if he's better at stealth than you are._

_Before he could calm down and sense Naruto's position, a huge beam roared out from his left, decimating any stone spike in its way and barely missing him by a few metres._

_Negi fell to his bum, his knees failed to support him as he stared dumbly at the wide trench that was at least five feet across and only got wider as it went. _

"_And that... Is the next level." A voice spoke from beside him, he looked up to see his nii-san carrying the canon from Kyoto on his shoulder. "This time, your opponent has the same base stats and his attacks are still linear. But unlike last time, they are unblockable. Now to your feet Negi. In situations like this, watch your opponent carefully. Powerful attacks, unlike my normal attacks where I can fire anytime I want without pause, always have a time between firing and recharging. Your job... is to look for that pause and learning the most effective way of taking the advantage during that short window of opportunity. This is a weakness many mages share but most of them have methods to counter that weakness, so I'll be countering your efforts myself."_

_He heard the sound of something humming again and paled as he correctly assumed that monster his nii-san was carrying was charging. _

_He only spared enough breath to mutter one word as he scrambled away._

"Shit."

**End Flashback**

"Shit."

Negi muttered as Naruto danced away from another of his spells before spinning in mid air, causing two spells that were about to hit him from opposing sides completely miss and nearly hit a mage on each side.

Naruto's natural evasiveness was insane, quickly thinking he called out a warning before quickly turning the ground underneath Naruto to mud, causing the blonde to slip slightly when he inevitably landed, just enough for the blonde female teacher to run a blade through his left arm, causing Naruto to drop his rifle.

Negi winced, nii-san was going to kick his arse later if he remembered any of this, but before anything else could be done, the blonde seemingly ignoring the blade in his left arm had lifted the teacher and thrown her into a group of chanting mages before appearing right in front of a crouching Negi with a foot poised to stomp on the boy.

Instead the blonde was tackled by Asuna, he didn't fall but the foot that was meant to stomp his head in, hit the floor 3 centimetres short of his family jewels.

Negi gulped. He still needed those dammit. Grasping the foot in front of him tightly in a bear hug, Negi chanted frantically and released a point blank '_Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens'_, he was shocked as well since he was in contact with the target but gritted his teeth and endured the sensation of thousands of needles piercing his skin.

Everybody else shielded their eyes from the bright flash and subsequent explosion, partially happy since that someone had _**finally **_landed the first direct hit on the evasive blonde, and partially horrified that two of their colleagues was probably badly injured, including Naruto.

When the dust finally cleared everyone stared in disbelief as the red clad blonde strode out of the dust cloud, slightly charred but otherwise completely fine and simply cricked his neck as if that spell had merely itched. Negi was lying face down on the floor behind the blonde but was still conscious since he was struggling to get up.

Setsuna grunted, "So this is what it feels like to finally fight Naruto-sensei when he isn't holding back at all?"

Asuna chuckled grimly from beside her, "Nope. I know he still has at least a few tricks left. Remember his style in Kyoto and his _other _form? Yeah... we're not even pushing him anywhere near that, 30 teachers, 5 teenagers and we're still getting our butts kicked. Badly. Where is Takahata-sensei anyway? I bet he could beat Naruto."

Konoka laughed slightly as she joined the conversation, "Forget Takahata, you sooo owe us lunch for this, and by the time we're done, you won't have enough money to go on a date with him."

Asuna reddened slightly, "You were going to do it anyway, so it's not entirely my fault! Why are we fighting anyway? It's just a kiss right?" she shot back and blushed even harder when she realized exactly what she had said.

Setsuna laughed and pointed at a blank faced Naruto that still managed to look menacing, "If he manages to get those lips on you, I don't think he'd stop until he sucks every bit of air out of your lungs."

Konoka and Asuna gulped knowing full well they were very possible targets.

**With Clone 1**

Naruto leapt away from the original, his eyes blank, set on the vampire watching the proceedings casually from her perch. Landing beside her he just waited for the vampire to acknowledge her. She looked up at him in confusion, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to go kiss people you like?"

The blonde stalked closer with a menacingly blank face causing Evangeline to backpedal, "Wa-wait! What are you doing?"

Naruto lunged at her before she could start chanting a spell or defend herself, she was so surprised that she didn't evade the blonde.

Naruto slammed her hands up on the wall and pushed her body against the wall before leaning down, Evangeline's face steadily burned redder and redder until his face was inches away.

She screwed her eyes shut, not believing what was about to happen until she felt lips brush across her forehead.

Her eyes snapped open in complete surprise and stared at the blonde's eyes which suddenly had a glimmer of life in them, "Even if you don't think you deserve it, I still care for you, my little sister. You have already repented enough even if everybody else doesn't believe it and even if you don't know how to show it. I will always believe in and care for you."

He brushed his lips against her forehead again before letting the limp vampire slide down the wall onto her rump and watch the blonde clone leap away again.

Staring at her palms, she didn't know what to make of the jumble of emotions burning in her chest.

**With Clone 2**

The clone landed in the clearing casually before strolling to the field, casually dispersing the other clone that was still there and taking its place.

Chizuru who was still leaning against the tree and stroking some of the sleeping children's hair with Akako on her lap looked up with a weird expression; there was a change in atmosphere that she couldn't explain. "Naruto? Is something wrong?"

Naruto turned his blank eyes on her and responded, "Not really. But I do have a request if you do not mind."

Chizuru looked strangely at the blonde, "And what might this request entail?"

"This." Was all he said before lunging forward, pressing Chizuru's body to the tree and molding his against hers before capturing her lips.

Chizuru eyes widened in shock and she struggled futilely for a few seconds, waking a sleeping Akako up in the process, but soon her body went limp as her hands went around Naruto's neck to support the weight that her knees no longer seemed to be able to take.

Sad to say the kiss was cold and mechanical and when Naruto removed his lips to look down at the panting girl his eyes were still blank. Chizuru took deep breaths before doing something unexpected, she grinned slyly at the blonde, "If you're going to kiss me, you're going to do it properly. That barely counted." Her arms that were snuggled around his neck tightened and pulled his lips back down. The clone yelped at the sudden move before his lips were occupied again.

A glimmer of life entered his eyes and with a grin, his kisses became more passionate as he started to nibble her lower lip slightly. His hands stroked her sides as their bodies melded together even more snugly and Chizuru moaned slightly as her fingers roamed his scalp and back.

Before anything could go further a slight retching sound disturbed them, both of them snapped apart to see a group of kids that weren't asleep mock retching. Chizuru smiled _very_ sweetly at them and they all immediately somehow fell asleep on the spot. Akako didn't notice; she was too busy staring at her father with her jaw hitting the ground. What the hell was he kissing the nice lady for?

"Otou-san?"

The clone smiled at her before sweeping her off her feet and smothering her face and tiny palms with kisses, causing the small girl to giggle delightedly, "I love you, my precious daughter," and smothered her with even more kisses.

"I love you too Otou-san!" the girl hugged him tightly.

Chizuru just smiled gently at the father daughter pair before furtively touching her pleasantly puffy lips.

It didn't mean she wasn't going to get an explanation out of him though. With force if it came to that.

**With Clone 3**

Makie sighed as she slumped on her desk, her shift at the Haunted House had just ended and her feet hurt, her legs hurt from standing all day, the kimono chaffed slightly since she wasn't wearing anything under it and it was rather heavy and hot to boot.

Pouting to herself slightly she wondered what Negi-sensei was doing, her homeroom teacher hadn't shown up the whole day after his first visit this morning. Slightly depressed she let her face drop flat on the cool wooden surface only for a cold sensation to suddenly brush the back of her neck.

Yelping slightly she jumped out of her seat in panic before spinning around to see Naruto casually leaning on the wall beside her with a cold can of coffee in his hand. she guessed that was what the cold feeling was.

"Yo, good work today. The Haunted House is really popular."

Grabbing the offered can she popped the tab before knocking a deep gulp back and sighing in satisfaction as the cool feeling flooded her insides.

The two of them leaned against the wall and Makie allowed herself to slump slightly into Naruto's side. The clone just smiled as a glimmer of life sparked in his eyes and placed a gentle kiss on her head before sitting down and letting her sleep on him if her quiet snores and snuffles were anything to go by.

**With Clone 4**

Ayaka looked down at the sleeping Negi on her lap with a gentle smile. Hearing him call her onee-chan had warmed her heart to the core. Sometimes she regretted being close to Negi, sometimes when she was alone, she even contemplated changing schools because of how she would imagine how life would have been if **that** hadnt happened... That always made her feel guilty even if her heart skipped a few beats at him smiling at her; knowing that she was just replacing Negi with her little brother. It just felt wrong...

Because he wasn't working for her affection of his own merits, and even when he did tug at her heart strings because of something touching or sincere that he did, her thoughts would inevitably turn to how much he looked like her little brother. And how life might have been.

She didn't want to resent her family. It was wrong.

Two arms jolted her out of her melancholy as they wrapped around her neck from behind. Jumping slightly in her seat, but not enough to wake Negi-sensei up, she tried to throw the person who was touching her violently over her shoulder.

Unfortunately the person didn't even budge when she gripped his arm.

"Calm down, it's just me bondage girl." She immediately relaxed and laughed slightly, it was weird how she never identified the blonde any other way, she could see blonde hair and never think about him, never see blue eyes and think about him. As dumb as it sounded, the only thing that reminded her of him was the words 'bondage girl.' Although she had to admit it was surprising how the way he popped out of nowhere to harass her didn't even bother her anymore, though she kept up the pretence because bickering with him was fun in a twisted way.

"What are you doing here idiot? Weren't you busy with something?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to see how you were doing when I found you acting all sappy here alone in the park."

Ayaka huffed, hiding her embarrassment with pride, "Why the hell would you want to see me? I'm not someone you need to be worried about."

"Meh, if I said I didn't care about you at all I would be lying."

"Wha-what are you saying here of all times baka!" Ayaka hissed angrily while her cheeks burnt brilliantly.

"What? Is it wrong to care for a friend?" Ayaka blushed even brighter for overreacting and huffed again before the both of them fell silent and despite herself, she allowed her head to lean back onto his shoulder with a small smile as a breeze scattered maple leaves all around them while Negi snuffled a little in her lap and Kotarou snored to the side.

"Oh my... what a cute family... do you mind if I take a picture of this? You remind me of myself when I was young and in love with my husband."

Ayaka looked up to see an elderly woman with a soft smile holding up a camera, she was about to protest when the arms around her neck squeezed gently and the blonde behind her replied for her, "We don't mind. But if possible please don't use the flash. Our son is still asleep."

Ayaka's blush went deeper, their son? Discreetly she pinched the arms around her neck but he didn't show any signs of discomfort, in fact he leaned even closer till their cheeks were side by side. Ayaka desperately tried to keep her blush down, if she didn't, the blonde would feel the heat with how close he was to her. Damn that bastard for being able to make her all sappy like this so easily.

"Smile."

Just as the flash went off she felt something brush her cheek.

Her mind blanked as she realized exactly what had happened. The arms squeezed her gently again before unwinding and their owner disappeared like the autumn breeze.

Dumbly she stared at the sleeping boy on her lap; she didn't know what else to think or do to fill the emptiness in her mind. Though she did note when he left, it suddenly felt a lot colder.

Her mind rebooted just in time to hear the chattering old lady walk away with one last comment to her husband, "Such a young couple but the way they seemed so close, so peaceful. It was beautiful. But I wonder if one of their parents had red hair. Both of them were blonde but their son was red headed."

Ayaka Yukihiro blanked again but before she did she swore to pound the blonde male as punishment for this.

**With Clone 5**

Naruto dropped down roof to a bell tower where a single person stood at the very top. She seemed to be enjoying the breeze while caressing a pendant or something in her hands.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"Make it 10 million and I might say something." She replied just as fast as she looked at the tall blonde that reminded her of memories best buried, with a small smile.

"Where's Negi? I thought he was here with you?"

"Negi-sensei has already left, he was meeting up with somebody I think,"

"Ahh... I see."

Naruto just walked closer until Mana looked at him strangely over her shoulder, something was wrong with his aura, but he just kept closing in on her.

When she finally realized he had no intention of stopping he had already intruded her personal space and leaned on her when he froze, the unmistakable feeling of having the cold barrel of a gun nudging his privates.

"I'm surprised at you, Naruto-san. I didn't think you were this careless."

"I'm usually not," the clone admitted, "At the moment I'm somewhat enthralled and it's rather hard to think with what the magic is urging me to do. The orders me and my original received was to show affection to people we cared about, but knowing someone has a gun to your balls is usually enough to snap you out of a daze. Magic or not..."

Mana forcefully pushed down a blush at the rather frank way he had said he cared for her, "Oh?" she pushed the gun harder, digging it slightly into his skin causing the clone to wince, "And in what way, pray tell, were you about to show affection to me?"

"Like this," He side stepped out of the gun's line of fire before nudging his knee between hers and tried to flip the half demon girl onto her back, only for her to twist in mid fall and land on all her knees before snapping her head up only for his lips to capture hers. Mana stiffened at the sensation before the pleasant sensation drove all thought away.

The blonde wrapped his arms around her waist and hoisted her up without breaking the kiss and Mana responded furiously, a fact that she absently noted and would later on be more surprised at rather than the fact that she had been kissed.

Soon, tired of letting him being so dominant she pushed the blonde back against the wall and took the initiative, for her first kiss, it really wasn't so bad.

Pulling apart, the mercenary grinned slightly at the dazed look on Naruto's face before burying her face in his chest to hide the blush she suddenly failed to stop, "You owe me for that. It was my first kiss and I was saving it for somebody else." Her voice was muffled by the cloth of Naruto's trenchcoat.

Naruto grinned, "Its worth more than anything I own," just as he bent down to capture her lips again, Mana fired a shot into his thigh. It wasn't a real bullet, simply a rubber one, she meant it as a warning that another kiss would cost even more but she definitely wasn't expecting him to puff away.

Staring at where the clone was barely seconds ago she gathered her wits again, "Tch. I'll claim the money later."

She turned back to her original position and unruffled her white silky dress. Looking down at the still open pendant she smiled softly before snapping it shut and breathing the evening breeze deeply.

**With Clone 1**

The clone quietly slipped into the cottage, Chachamaru's signature told him that she was cooking something in the kitchen. Presumably dinner for Evangeline, him and Akako before she had to leave for her club activities.

Quietly he snuck into the kitchen and leaned in the doorway as Chachamaru quietly chopped some onions on a board with a little more force than necessary, not that he noticed. Smiling softly as his eyes shone brightly with mischief, he tiptoed behind her before wrapping his arms around her waist. She didn't skip a beat, and Naruto pouted, "You already knew I was coming?"

"Yes. I felt the flare or magic and when it merged with your signature I assumed someone had confessed to you and you had succumbed to the World Tree, though I do not know what the contents of the wish was." There was a slight tilt in her inflection that made confused Naruto. She didn't seem too pleased with something.

Deciding he would ask her about it later, he continued nuzzling her neck which felt warmer than usual and chuckled quietly, "Do you want to know?"

"Um... ye-yes."

Spinning the housewife kimono wearing gynoid around, he peppered soft kisses under her jaw, "The wish was for me to show affection to those I love."

She definitely skipped a beat there, the clone grinned and pushed his advantage, pushing her against the sink he kissed her forcefully while his hands stroked her back and sides.

Chachamaru let out a quiet squeak but the shy reaction was contradictory to the rest of her actions; her hands fisted his clothes, not letting him go as she returned the kiss just as fiercely. Finally leaning back onto the sink, their lips parted and Chachamaru suddenly understood how people who were out of breath felt. Wait, what was she angry about again? She couldn't remember.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad and she hoped for a repeat performance.

For purely academic purposes only of course.

Naruto grinned at the gynoid's red cheeks and her uncharacteristic shyness before lifting her chin up with one hand and laid another mind shattering kiss on her lips.

It didn't take very long for the gynoid to go completely limp in his hands. Moving back slightly, Naruto stared incredulously at the gynoid.

She had completely blacked out with a goofy grin on her usually stoic lips.

Forming another clone to finish her cooking, he carried the fainted girl to their futon and decided to keep her company until she woke up. Doubtfully she wouldn't be pleased he had screwed up her schedule.

**With the Original**

Mismatched eyes swivelled around the battlefield frantically.

Konoka was lying in a heap on the ground where she would be safe.

Setsuna was also nothing more than a lump of flesh beside Konoka.

Nearly 30 teachers lay about in various states of consciousness, most of them were simply exhausted, some of the more unfortunate ones were unconscious by force. She winced at the one teacher that she didn't know, who was still planted halfway through a brick wall with his butt hanging grotesquely where everyone could see it. The idiot had decided enough was enough and had cast a powerful Fire High Ancient area spell at where Konoka, Setsuna and a few others were tangling with Naruto. Naruto had taken one look at the oncoming rush of fire before flashing right in front of the guy, flared his presence to the max, suffocating almost everyone in the vicinity in the process and roared at the spell in defiance (Asuna rubbed her eyes at that moment, she swore the flames had somehow managed to shrink and look scared) before taking the entire attack head on rather than allow Konoka and some others to get hurt despite his enthralled state.

Then he had proceeded to kick the fat teacher so hard that he had gone through the wall.

No one else had enough balls to try another possibly lethal AOE spell after that.

When that was done, he had flashed back to a Setsuna that was a still stunned at him blocking a High Ancient spell, wrapped his arms around the swordsgirl, transformed into an adult Konoka look-alike and started whispering something into her ears. Needless to say, Setsuna lost and was out like a light in 5 seconds.

Asuna conveniently ignored the awesome nosebleed Setsuna had spurted into the face of five teachers before fainting. The five teachers were then knocked out one by one since they couldn't see.

After placing Setsuna where she was safe, Naruto had returned to the battlefield and tripped a still stunned Konoka. Stunned at the method used to take out her personal bodyguard so easily that is. Before she could defend herself Naruto had split into two, one grabbed the princess and kissed her furiously while the other clone kept the rest at bay.

Konoka had resisted at first, although Asuna was rather suspicious since it didn't seem like she was fighting the kiss too hard.

In fact after the blonde had wrapped his arms around the girl and whispered something in her ear while licking her ear lobe, Asuna could almost swear that instead of being kissed, Konoka was the one who had grabbed Naruto by the ears and kissed him.

No... she must have seen wrong. Fog of War and all that jazz.

Then the blonde had proceeded to do something with his fingers that were running up and down Konoka's body lewdly, the princess let out a quiet _eep_ and completely fainted.

The last man standing against Naruto, or rather boy, had been Negi, and they had both fought, magic and fists against magic and fists. Both of them kept using stranger and stranger and more and more outlandish tactics as the battle dragged on. At one point Negi had clambered up on to Naruto and tired to smother Naruto to death by covering Naruto's face with his body before Naruto retaliated by literally transforming into a sea of naked girls with bouncing boobs and squashed Negi in marshmallow hell, it didn't work, mostly because the boy was desensitized by it, but the bouncing distractions had allowed for Naruto to perform an ass poke that defeated Negi. No wait she didn't see anything, she didn't want to see anything. Negi had just fainted all of a sudden.

Yes that's right...

And so they were here now, only her against Naruto. Well not really against especially since he had already disarmed her of her_ harisen_.

She was going to pound his head in.

Well she would've if her hands weren't being pinned by the wrist above her to the wall by one of Naruto's arm while his other arm placed feather light touches up, down and along her side and back.

Asuna shivered. Oh god, she was going to get corrupted like Konoka. And right now her muddled brain didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Her mind blanked as Naruto's lips drew nearer to her face and she shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to see Naruto forcing himself on her.

For a few seconds nothing happened when she felt something wet drip on her shoulder.

**Play Kalafina – STORIA **

Carefully peeking out from under her eyelids she saw that Naruto had completely bypassed her lips and smashed his forehead so hard on the wall behind her that his mask had shattered. The wall wasn't much better, in fact it was crumbling and it seemed like only Naruto's hands was holding the whole thing up from collapsing completely. Blood dripped from the wound on his forehead as his hands fell to his sides limply and he slid down, before he fainted he managed to whisper a quiet "Sorry." and a chaste peck on the cheek before his eyes shut completely and he fell on her.

Struggling under his weight, she fell to her knees, still utterly stunned.

A teacher that had his face planted in the ground suddenly perked up and asked a very quiet whisper, "Is it over? Are we safe?"

Gandolfini looked at him weirdly, "I thought you were unconscious?"

"Ahaha..." the teacher laughed sheepishly before helping another teacher up.

Gandolfini with his arm around Seruhiko's shoulder limped up to the blonde and a still stunned Asuna.

The stunned girl finally regained enough presence of mind to mutter an apology, "Sorry for all the trouble. I'll make sure the idiot apologizes and fixes everything." She mumbled, her eyes fixed on the blonde that was now sleeping peacefully on her lap.

Gandolfini laughed loudly, "It's alright. If anything I think we're the ones that have to thank you. This fight has shown us that a lot of us have been slacking off from practice, especially ever since he started taking a major role in guarding the Mahora barrier, fighting against the _'Black Paladin'_ himself was a great opportunity as well. We never knew exactly what he was capable of, even when he was on missions with us and his mysteriousness made a lot of people uncomfortable around him, so this was a true eye opener."

Konoka limped up to Asuna with Setsuna and Negi, "Black Paladin?" she questioned quietly.

Gandolfini laughed sheepishly, "Naruto-sama doesn't know it, not many dare to call him that to his face but his actions on missions has earned him the moniker Black Paladin among the wider mage population because of his actions. He always fights what for what is right regardless of the rules and protocol, hence the _Paladin_, but his methods and results are rather... disturbing and he usually dresses completely in dark colours, hence the _Black_."

Then the dark skinned mage added with a wry smile, "And believe me, even though his intentions are good, the fact that he always did what he wanted regardless of protocol drove Touko, Mahora's Mage Association's Head of Operations," he gestured at the shouting blonde woman behind him," up the wall so many times that most of us even started a betting pool about when she would finally snap and beat him into the ground or kiss him silly,"

Negi realized something, "Missions? What missions? He never even missed one class even if he just sleeps in them, so how did he go?"

Gandolfini shrugged, "I guess he uses that clone technique he has. The missions I'm talking about are those that usually involve arguments between Eastern and Western mages because of his ambassador status; to date he has already gone on at least 15 missions and stopped 26 illegal intrusions into Mahora with his improved barriers and skills." He looked at the five teenagers weirdly, "Didn't you know? I thought he would have told you seeing as you're his homeroom teacher."

Negi glared at the unconscious blonde, "Oh, we didn't know, but we'll make him tell us once he wakes up. In fact I think I'll hit him just for not telling us." All three girls agreed readily.

Gandolfini waved them farewell as the groaning mages regrouped under the blonde female's orders and left in a staggering group, surprisingly enough there were no true injuries whatsoever, simply bruises and concussions. The worst was of course the rather plump teacher, but he wasn't complaining. Scratch that, he was going to buy a nice wheelchair and retire as soon as possible. He had nearly hurt innocents and a girl in front of Naruto. People who did that had the tendency to suddenly develope an all consuming urge to spend the rest of their lives braiding their hair, playing with dolls and having tea parties. And that was if they were lucky enough to catch him on a good day.

Negi sat down beside the quiet Asuna with a groan before poking the limp Naruto, "I'm late for my ... date... shit where's Nodoka-san!"

Konoka smiled and pointed to where Mei had left a sleeping Nodoka in safety.

Negi healed himself as best as he could and scrambled off to waken Nodoka and finish his date.

Sighing at the rushing Negi, Konoka and Setsuna just slumped down on the wall beside Asuna and Konoka nudged the quiet Asuna slightly, "What's going on in that head of yours? You're being quieter than usual."

Asuna looked at Konoka with a troubled expression; "It's nothing..." the red head hesitated for a bit before sighing tiredly and started to rant, "The bastard always seemed to be just there you know. I mean we knew he was powerful but he never **acted **like it. He was always just there with the group, joking around, training us, sleeping in class like a moron, teasing Makie and Ayaka to the point where it looked like they were frothing at the mouth and all around being an utter goof ball and now we find out this bastard has been going out on _missions? _And that at least half of the magically aware population are scared shitless of this idiot? Then that fight... I mean, it really drives the point home that he is powerful. Not to mention, I thought we were close and then we find this out. It makes me wonder, do we really know who Naruto is? And if we don't, how much hasn't he told us?"

Asuna cocked one fist, wanting to slam it into that peacefully sleeping face but slowly her fist unclenched as she hesitated before lowering to caress his whisker birthmarks, "Why won't he tell us anything Konoka? I thought we were friends, if not friends than at least allies after Kyoto, or a teacher after he trained us." she asked with a soft tone before continuing her angry rant again, "It's so infuriating you know! It's just like that time Negi pissed me off because he didn't want us to get involved, and now we find out Naruto has been doing the exact same thing, only... only... quieter? No subtler. Yeah, only subtler, and he had the balls to lecture me about it. Kiii, thinking about makes me want to hit him even worse now!"

Konoka smiled gently before running her hands through the blonde's soft hair, "That's the fun part isn't it? We'll keep finding out about him, peel away layer by layer, I don't know about you, but it makes me feel that everything I do with him is worth it, so when the time comes, I can... Kyah..!"

Asuna and Setsuna both looked at the squirming princess and simultaneously decided they didn't want to know and gave them plausible deniability.

Setsuna looked at the sleeping blonde's visage and spoke, "I suppose it's just the way he and Negi-sensei are. They don't want us to get hurt, so they burden everything by themselves. They have a reason to get stronger. Maybe they didn't do it on purpose, but when I saw Negi fight Naruto toe to toe, when I saw how much Naruto-sensei has been hiding from us, I don't know why, but I can't find it in myself to get angry that he's hiding stuff from us, instead to me, it just means that I have a long way to go, that I have to get stronger, so that one day I can fight with them at their side as equals, so that one day he won't need to hide stuff from us. Because when that day comes, it will mean that I finally managed to become strong enough to be worthy of being someone they can confide in."

Setsuna shrugged embarrassedly, "That's the way I feel anyway,"

"Kyaah! Se-chan you're so cute when you speak like that! So warrior-like, ahh... love on the battlefield is so beautiful." Konoka flung herself at the blushing Setsuna, "Ko-konoka-ojou sama, it-it's not love!"

Just then fireworks exploded in the sky and the three girls settled down beside the unconscious Naruto to watch.

"Pity the idiot isn't awake to see this."

Konoka smiled slightly, even though Asuna was angry at the blonde she still cared for him in her own way, "Yeah."

**With Clone 1**

He looked out the window where he could see the firework in the distance but a slight stirring in the futon drew his attention back. Smiling slightly he stroked Chachamaru's hair, "Good morning."

"Ah... What happened?"

"I think I went a little too far this afternoon." More fireworks sparked in the distance, causing Chachamaru to look out the windows as well. Sitting up, she knelt beside the blonde as he wrapped his arm around her side and they both just watched the fireworks silently.

"Ah... I forgot I have to go..." the gynoid sai with a note of sadness in her monotone voice.

Naruto smiled, "Yeah, go ahead. Evangeline's dinner is already taken care off. So you can go enjoy yourself."

"Thanks... Naruto." The gynoid placed a soft kiss on his lips before going to get ready.

**With Clone 2**

Naruto sat alone under a tree, bouncing Akako on his lap. Chizuru had already left with the rest of the children since it was getting late. Akako turned to see her father smiling at her, squriming around to face him, nuzzled his chest, "Papa... today, fun."

Naruto kissed the crown her head, "Yeah. Today was fun."

A popping sound from the distant distracted both of them.

"Ah! Papa! Hanabi!"

The blonde grinned at her excitement and looked up and watched the fireworks as well, "Yeah... its beautiful isn't it?"

"Umu. Beautiful."

"Here. Papa will take you where we can see the fireworks closer. Ok?"

"Yatta! Mama coming?"

He smiled at his excited daughter, "Mama is a bit busy. It'll be just us today." Akako pouted and seemed to deflate for a while before seemingly shrugged it off and bouncing again. Naruto grinned at her cheerfulness before picking her up and taking to the roofs. ,"I'll buy you anything you want today. Just for my precious daughter."

"Yatta!"

**With Original**

Konoka turned to the other two girls, "Wait, aren't the two of you supposed to join the Mahora Martial Arts competition in an hour?"

Asuna face palmed, "Great, I completely forgot. And now I'm so tired from fighting this idiot I don't think I can join."

Setsuna sadly agreed.

"Konoka! Setsuna! Asuna!"

All three girls turned to the voice, "Negi? Is your date over?"

Negi reached them and panted slightly, "Yeah. Listen, I wanted to tell you something." The homeroom teacher pulled out a pocketwatch, This was the thing Chao-san gave me."

Setsuna perked up, she had completely forgotten about the time travel device, "Oh yeah! We can turn back time for at least a day. That way we can all rest before the Tournament. And since we already attended the Haunted House and Club business we don't have to worry about them!"

Asuna looked dubiously at the watch, "You sure this is safe?"

Negi nodded excitedly, "Yeah! I don't want to miss the Tournament, and I'm sure Naruto wont either. So we can just turn back time, the four of your can rest in the dorms while I go meet up with everyone else..." he counted his fingers and sweat dropped, "At least another day of no sleep if everything went according to plan."

Asuna finally agreed, "Alright... just don't do anything funny. I don't want to end up in some alternate dimension or 10 years ago because you wanted to play with that thing."

Negi pouted at her, "Ok, ok, everyone hold on to me."

When time turned back it was daylight.

Asuna and Konoka looked around in wonder, "Wow... time really changed." A small snore from Asuna's lap caught her attention and she smiled, "Come on, I don't know bout you guys, but I'll bring Naruto to our rooms. He can sleep on the couch." She yawned a bit, "I'm tired too."

She tried to stand up but nearly stumbled when someone else caught her while Konoka steadied Naruto's other side, "Here. We'll help."

Asuna grinned at the two girls, "Thanks." Turning back to Negi she asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I have to meet up with Iincho and the rest; I'll see you guys at the Tournament tonight?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about us and the idiot here. We'll be there."

Asuna waved her homeroom teacher off as the four of them stumbled off in the direction of the dorms.

******Broken Faith******

Negi leapt off, intending on finding Iincho and helping at the Haunted House but a glint in the sunlight distracted him. Squinting at it, he saw it was Tatsumiya-san, wielding a more traditional rifle compared to the one Naruto-nii san used.

Side tracked he leap up beside her, "Mana-san? What are you doing?"

"Patrolling. We're not supposed to let people confess remember?" just as she said those words she fired at a couple.

"Hah! Wha-wha-wha?"

She fired again and again, "Gyah! You can't kill people for just confessing Mana-san!"

"You don't have to worry, these are just tranquilizer bullets. They are just asleep." Mana replied with a small smile and calm tone, "Although... they probably won't wake up till the Festival is over." She added with a rather sly grin.

He decided to spend some time with Mana, only being interrupted once when a confused Naruto had arrived. Judging by his confused face Negi knew this was the Naruto who hadn't been enthralled and fought them yet, and Negi felt the urge to keep his earlier promise. Smiling slightly he walked up to his nii-san innocently before planting a fist in his guts.

"I'll give you an explanation later," and received a middle finger for his troubles. Negi just grinned as the blonde jumped away.

A few hours later, he left Mana and bumped into Yue.

Meanwhile Mana watched her homeroom teacher leave. Opening the pendant again, she wondered what made her tell the boy about her past. It wasn't like her and it wasn't like she gained any benefit from it.

As she was wondering she felt a familiar presence approach her.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Mana smirked, "Make it 10 million and I might say something."

******Broken Faith******

Naruto blearily looked around. Negi was hiding behind a table while Konoka, Asuna and everybody else was staring at him weirdly as a few new arrivals landed beside Asuna, he faintly recognized the blonde girl he teased this morning. He wondered why all of them looked worried.

Nevermind, Naruto attempted to move towards Negi only something held him back. Looking down in confusion he saw that his entire body was shackled in some sort of chains made of light. Struggling against them proved futile. Then his perspective moved, making him feel slightly nauseous as his body moved while he had no sense of control, it felt weird, as if he was watching from his eyes but at the same time not. Like the images were fed directly into his brain.

He struggled again, he seemed to be stuck in his own psyche or something.

He watched as his body moved, disappearing with a burst of speed and reappearing behind Asuna, his arm, which he had no control over made to grab Asuna and he tried to shout a warning like earlier only no sound came out. He struggled against the shackles of light even harder.

His body was flung away by some sort of shadow, the blonde sighed slightly in relief.

Suddenly he felt the sensation he usually did when he drew on his chakra, only this time he wasn't the one controlling it. Everyone in his vision froze, and the blonde growled at himself as his body moved, as thoughts and calculations ran through his head, thoughts that weren't his.

'NOO!'

He tried to scream.

Those thoughts were his and yet not his; these thoughts cared for nothing except the goal, showing affection for those he cared for. Everything or everyone that tried to stop him was nothing but collateral damage.

Naruto gritted his teeth as his body drew on even more chakra and unleashed dangerous jutsus.

'STOP IT!'

These moves weren't the moves of a student, of the bodyguard he was now, of the person he became.

These moves were the moves of the assassin he was before. Efficient, sharp and brutal. The moves of someone with only one target and ready to do anything to achieve it. He winced as his body kicked Setsuna away violently, the girl crashed into one of the teachers. That was going to bruise.

He grinned as his body was finally restrained and more people arrived to help. Ok, there was hope. Turning some of his attention to his clones, he could feel one of his clones about to kiss Evangeline and he struggled even harder. He called forth more chakra to fight the shackles. As he struggled he could feel the shackles shift slightly and the clone simply pecked Evangeline's forehead chastely instead of forcefully capturing her lips. Naruto grinned. Ok, he was getting somewhere. He now had a little control over his clone's actions.

He fought even harder and turned his attention back to the original. This one was harder, his earlier efforts proved useless, only managing to bring a slight pause to the battlefield before it continued to try and break free of the restraining spells.

In the real world, the blonde drew more chakra and burst free of his bindings.

Inside his mind, Naruto paled a little as his body's thoughts passed his mind. The most efficient way to the target with multiple obsctacles; large scale demolition tactics.

With one eye carefully watching his body's action he struggled even harder but the shackles wouldn't even shift a little now. Even though Negi couldn't hear it the blonde cheered for the boy as he told everyone what to do. He tried as hard as he could to influence the body outside, but nothing worked. Eventually he felt like he had expended everything and hung tiredly from his shackles as his body terrorized the mages.

He gritted his jaw, no, he couldn't give up yet, his body would hurt someone if this continued.

There! Negi had turned the ground to mud but his body hadn't noticed, this was his chance! Roaring silently he pushed one last time, one last burst.

He pushed hard enough that red flames leapt up and black chains wrapped around him but it didn't hurt, most likely because this was only a mental representation of him, but it was enough, he winced a little as his material body stumbled on the mud and Touko managed to stab his arm, making him drop the rifle. With tooth aching cracking sounds, the chains of light shattered and the blonde fell tiredly to the floor. Or what he thought was the floor. He had no strength left; he needed to rest for a while.

But he could feel the slow change in his body's thought process. In a few minutes it would realign to the same principles, the same way he thought before being enthralled, but still enchanted and seeking to show affection as the Tree termed it. At least now it wouldn't hurt anybody without him watching.

Everything faded to black.

******Broken Faith******

When he next opened his eyes, he was surprised to find himself in a completely white space where he couldn't see anything at all. Frowning he tried to remember how he had gotten here. Last he rememb... ah... The blonde sweat dropped, he hoped no one accidentally died.

Gahh... anyway how was he supposed to get out of here?

"Naruto-kun... you look well."

The blonde spun around at the sound of someone calling his name, what the hell? Wasn't he alone in here?

His eyes widened. "Whu-wha-huh? Jiji?"

The Sandaime Hokage stood there with a wide familiar toothy grin, dressed in his usual white robes minus the Hokage hat.

******Broken Faith******

AN

**Ah, it has come to my attention that my rants and opinions make me seem like a self important jackass with my head so far up my ass because only my opinions are right. My advice? It's my opinion, I'm not forcing it on you, you read it of your own volition. So how the heck do you define it as self important and that I consider only my own opinions as the right ones? I mean I have nothing against homosexual people, heck, if two girls started making out in front of me, I'd join them as long as they gave me permission. For guys on the other hand... I got nothing against you as long as you don't try to plant something up my ass, I don't like yaoi just because, well I don't like them, I mean I'm not condemning anybody, you guys can write what you want, all I want is a place where I don't have to see slash every time I log in. Fanfiction dot net has another sister website fictionpress dot net or something, I don't see why they can't make a fictionyaoi dot net. But that might be going too far so I'll settle for a normal filter.**

**Tenkuu no Tenbin : Scales of Heavenly Balance ( Variation of the Shinra Bansho series )**


	18. The Tournament Begins

**Broken Faith 18**

**The Tournament Begins**

**Disclaimer : Dont own anything. Naruto – Masashi Kishimoto, Negima – Akamatsu Ken. **

**Ah... this is a fast update isn't it? I didn't plan to release this so early but because this fic represents two milestones for me so I couldn't help it. One, this fic is the one where I finally break the 200k word barrier. Two, and more importantly, NightDranzer let me know that Broken Faith was finally mentioned on Tvtropes. Ok, so it's just a small blurb on tvtropes, but I'm getting there. Let's hope this fic gets its own page soon. So those of you that want to thank someone for the fast update, thank the guy, whoever he is although it's probably a reader here, for it.**

**Oh and since this fic was updated so soon, the next one won't come till it hits 550 reviews. *wink***

**Soundtrack List**

Persona 3 OST – Living in Determination – Iwatodai Station Remix –

Persona 3 OST – Deep Breath Deep Breath Reincarnation

******Broken Faith******

**Play Persona 3 OST – Living in Determination – Iwatodai Station Remix -**

"Wha-Hu-How?"

The old man chuckled and waved his hand. Two comfortable seats, reminiscent of the ones in his office appeared out of thin air, "Come and sit with an old man Naruto."

Dumfounded, the blonde followed the suggestion without hesitation.

They sat in silence, the old man serenely observing the wide array of emotions that were flashing across the blonde's feature, prominent of all, confusion and happiness.

"It's been a long time hasn't it?"

The blonde's face blanked as he clamped down on his rampant emotions, he looked down at his feet and chuckled lowly, "Yeah... I made Chuunin then Jonin a few years after you died you know."

Sarutobi smiled softly, "I had no doubt you could do it."

Naruto smiled at the old man's faith in him, "It wasn't easy. But I didn't mind. I even found someone to love."

The third Hokage smiled proudly, "I know, she was very beautiful. I'm sorry we never got to meet and that I let myself be blinded by my prejudice of her."

"I think she would have been happy to meet you too."

The two of them sat and quietly reminisced of better times together and pranks which Naruto had done in his youth when Naruto suddenly blurted out, "I'm an orphan, not a bastard." Naruto looked at his body strangely while Sarutobi looked equally confused, "What was that about?"

"Dunno, just felt the urge to say it. Like somebody was having a 'Naruto is a bastard' rant again."

Sarutobi sweat dropped, "Do you get those kind of rants very often?"

"Meh. Sometimes. Don't know why but everyone I meet has an episode sooner or later."

Sarutobi laughed loudly.

Eventually they ran out of things to talk about and Sarutobi's expression fell when he knew it was time to do what he came for, "I'm sorry."

Naruto looked up in confusion, "For what?"

"I know you never really forgave me." The old man solemnly said without preamble.

"N-no, I understood. I mea-"

"Naruto." The old man firmly stopped the blonde with one disapproving word and stared silently at him.

Naruto sighed and slumped into his seat, "No I didn't." He soberly confessed, "I knew and understood. I could even respect the decision, but I couldn't respect the result. After I found out, I couldn't hate you, but I couldn't completely forgive you either. Why didn't you tell me? Even if I was flighty and an idiot at the time, all you had to do was make me promise not to tell. No matter how much of a flight risk I was, you knew I never broke my promises."

The old man drew a deep breath from his pipe before blowing it out, "Ah... I haven't had a good smoke in ages."

Naruto snorted in amusement.

"In short? I was making excuses. Even the fact that you were so... attention seeking was my fault and something I could have stopped easily, but I wanted any reason, any excuse, no matter how flimsy not to tell you. Not for the Good of Konoha or any reason like that. I just didn't want to tell you because I couldn't face myself, I couldn't face the disappointment I had become, by telling you about your heritage, your burden, it would put the spotlight squarely on the mistakes I made, forcing me to face them. And I couldn't do it. Everytime you smiled so brightly at me, it killed me on the inside knowing you trusted the one person that was causing you pain. Yet everytime you were hurt, I couldn't bring myself to lift your burden. I'm sorry."

Tears quietly slid down the old man's face.

"I wanted to tell you so long. Even when I was dying, I wanted to ask for your forgiveness. I wanted to grovel and beg for forgiveness, forgiveness for hurting and sacrificing you, the purest person left in Konoha, for something which no longer mattered in the end anyway."

Naruto kneeled beside the crying old man and hugged the frail looking Sandaime while tears ran down his cheeks as well.

"You saw?"

Sarutobi nodded sadly, "It hurt me, knowing that even though I worked so hard for the people of Konoha, they had become so depraved and self serving, especially Kakashi, but I was glad you found people you could trust. People you could have faith in. That not everyone in Konoha was completely corrupted."

He smiled at the blonde through wet eyes, "Though when you decided to impale a few council members it didn't really help the argument against betraying you, you know." He furtively looked around and gave Naruto a thumbs up.

They both laughed before becoming solemn again.

I'm sorry you suffered because of a stupid old man Naruto."

"It's alright... I knew, I mean after I realized it was the best way, I wasn't really angry anymore. Better you then Danzo, better you then slavery. I knew how much you loved Konoha. Knowing what they became in the end would have hurt you far more than it did to me, I didn't really care about them because I knew what was going to happen anyway. To me, it was just another bridge for me to cross," He shook his head, "In the end, it's not that I didn't forgive you for causing me suffering, I just wanted to talk to you one last time, to hear you say yourself, to hear your reasons from your own lips. Just some closure to the one of the best times in my younger days you know."

He drew a deep breath and smiled brightly at the old man, "So I forgive you jiji."

The Sandaime gave him an equally cheesy smile and thumbs up, tears started to flow down both their cheeks as the blonde stated to fade away with the sound of chains shattering.

Sandaime smiled as the blonde looked at his fading body in confusion, in the last few seconds, Naruto's lean mature face was replaced by a chubby innocent one he had so many years ago, the same confused, innocent face he had with those squinty fox eyes that looked at him for answers.

When the blonde was completely gone, the old man sighed and fell back into his seat before drawing another deep breath of his pipe and wiped his tears away.

"Thank you. That was my one greatest regret."

"No thanks are needed. This is as much for him as it was for you; we simply thought this was a good time to do it. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah... I'm ready."

Sarutobi smiled at the barren sky as he faded away as well, he knew Naruto would have a good life.

******Broken Faith******

Konoka was reading a chick flick, having woke earlier from her rest. Asuna and Setsuna had already gone on their patrols but she wasn't inclined to join them. Preferring to relax instead, so here she was with a nice little romance book in one hand and running her fingers through a sleeping Naruto's blonde locks. The blonde had started turning and tossing in his sleep sometime during her book but seemed to calm down at her touch, and Konoka honestly admitted with a small smile that it wasn't a terrible burden either.

She had just reached the good part when she heard a slight sniffing sound. Looking away from her guilty pleasure she noticed tears falling from the blonde. Immediately she dropped the book on a bedside table and climbed on to the bed to hold the blonde. Concern filling her face, she wondered what was going on.

Blue eyes snapped open blearily and focused on her face, "Ko-konoka?"

"Naruto? Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

Instead of replying the blonde buried his face in her lap and started to sob.

"Naruto?"

"I-I'm sorry, but just let me stay this way for a while."

Konoka didn't say anything but shifted into a more comfortable position for both of them, running her fingers through his hair again.

Once his tears had subsided Konoka warily tried to find out what was wrong again, saying that it wasn't normal to see the normally strong blonde break down like that was an understatement, and she was curious to know what could affect him like that, "You alright?" she asked softly.

"Ye-yeah. I'm sorry about your..." He gestured at the tear marks on her kimono shamefacedly.

"That's not important, you were crying," She said bluntly.

"Naruto smiled slightly, "It was nothing. I just had a good dream."

Konoka gave him a look that said she obviously didn't think it was _just _a good dream but let sleeping dogs lie.

"What time is it? And what happened? Last I remember was Asuna wishing err... for me to kiss people I cared about... Did anyone get hurt?" Naruto asked urgently, albeit with a slight blush.

"No, nothing worse than broken bones and a few concussions. But..." She giggled slightly, "Hmm... I didn't know you cared for me like that, it was a real shocker you know. You took my first kiss." The princess grinned slyly at him.

The blonde averted his eyes with a great blush but before long a troubled expression spread on his face, he hadn't meant to kiss her. He couldn't encourage her... for various reasons, "Hime... you know I can't be with you like that."

Konoka stiffened in reply, causing Naruto to sigh, "Look I'm stupid, and I misunderstand alot of things, but at the risk of sounding presumptous, I know you never made it a secret that you liked me. But I tried to discourage you softly; I really can't be with you like that."

Konoka's expression steadily started to get stonier, "Oh? And why not?"

Warning bells started ringing in Naruto's head but being the idiot he usually was when he just woke up he ignored them and forged ahead anyway, to him; this was a good a time as any to let the girl down gently, "Look, I know that you liked me because you thought I was strong, I get that, girls like dark, handsome and strong men, God knows how well I know that, but you're still young. Just because I'm flashy and powerful or something, isn't a good reason to like someone me."

Konoka pursed her lips as and didn't say anything but simply gestured for him to continue.

Naruto sighed again, it didn't seem to be working so he tried another tactic, "Simply put, you are almost royalty Konoka. You are related to two of five Magic population leaders, both of whom are good friends and people I trust, something I won't betray by cheating on their daughter and granddaughter. People expect you to find a suitable husband that can love you with everything in his heart and settle down. Someone like me? all I know is fighting Konoka, I can't give you the life of a princess. Even though I got a second chance at life, I still fight because that's all I can do, all I _**know**_how to do, so the least I could do is put that useless talent to better use rather than be another mercenary. I can't take care of you Konoka, you don't deserve that kind of life."

Konoka's expression progressively got stonier. Forget bells ringing in his head, they were fucking klaxons now.

"I see. Is there any other reason?"

"Um... You're just 14? And I refuse to cheat on Chachamaru?"

"She's literally just three years old." Konoka pointed out.

"Ok... I just won't cheat on Chachamaru. Gynoid or not, I won't hurt her." Naruto firmly stated.

The klaxons started wailing something that sounded suspiciously like a funeral dirge.

"I see... Very well. Is there anything else you wish to say?"

"Um... I was going to try and persuade you to join the Martial Arts tournament with me, Asuna and Setsuna?"

Konoka abruptly dropped Naruto's head from her lap as she stood up, "Understood. I'll see you later at the tournament." Before sedately leaving the room with a straight back.

Naruto watched her go with a rather sad expression before it morphed into something resembling relief, he didn't like hurting people like that. scratch that, he didn't like hurting her. He wouldn't have made an issue and would have been content to let their relationship remain in its status quo, but with the kissing incident, he didn't want to give her false hope that he could start a relationship with her. Whether or not he survived he was going to remain loyal to Chachamaru. Better he hurt her now than lead her along like an indecisive idiot that couldn't make up his mind.

Then again what he just did probably wasn't wise either.

He slammed the back of his head on the wooden headboard to stop the klaxons. Why couldn't she just be another tsundere like Ayaka or Asuna? He complained in his mind. After dating Akane, and she admitted she was a tsundere herself, he knew how to deal with those very easily, if you've seen one Tsundere, you've seen them all. Anything else was... er... gravy?

Shaking the weird thoughts off, the blonde wearily got up with a sigh and picked up his cloak and leapt out the open window, leaving behind a thank you and I'm sorry note on the bedside table. She probably wouldn't appreciate seeing his face right now. That and he wanted to go apologize to Konoe about the inevitable blow up when Konoka told him what he did, as well as pay for the damages to the rooftops. That promised to be an awkward conversation.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Persona 3 OST – Deep Breath Deep Breath Reincarnation **

"Nii-san!" the blonde perked up as he heard his name being called among the crowd of martial artists waiting for the tournament to start.

"Negi, sup?"

"You here for the tournament too? Asuna, Konoka and Setsuna are already here, they're over there. It surprised me! I didn't think they would join, but even Konoka joined."

Naruto averted his eyes guiltily while Akako in fox form licked his cheek sadly.

Kotarou ran up to them, "Hehehe! You joining too Kinpatsu-san? Yeah! More strong people to fight! Just a small tournament my ass!"

Naruto glanced questioningly at Negi and received a shrug in return while Kotarou started rambling about beating Naruto and showing his Chizu-nee and Natsumi-chan what a man in battle really looked like, "Oh that reminds me." He eyed the small boy with a gimlet eye, "You still owe me an explanation about being in more than one place at once. It doesn't seem like you're using clones either."

Negi glanced around before shushing the blonde and pulling him into an alley, "It's a secret Nii-san, and you can't tell anybody ok? Remember when we helped Chao-san?"

Naruto scratched his chin, he vaguely remembered something but put it down to another less significant thing he had done, "Yeah, a little. Why?"

The boy held out a weird round thing for Naruto to see, "This clock lets me rewind time for at least 24 hours. That's how I've been going around multiple places at the same time. I live one day before turning back time and reliving it again!" the boy stated excitedly.

Naruto looked at the item weirdly, "Time Manipulation Device? Well... it's not like I haven't heard of those, but you sure it works right? No bad side effects?"

Negi himself started to look troubled, "I-I'm not sure... there hasn't been anything bad that happened yet. At most I feel tired because the device feeds off my power to work."

"Eh... if you feel it's alright then do as you like. But I'd prefer not to use it. Time isn't something I'd like to mess around with, God knows the last time I did; I nearly stopped myself from being born..."

"Eh? Um..." Negi started to look worriedly at the device.

Naruto laughed it off loudly, "As long as you don't do something too stupid it should be alright."

"O-ok... By the way did you do something to Konoka-san? She seems a little weird..." What Negi meant to say was intense but Naruto didn't know that.

"Err... I spoke to her about something. It wasn't a pleasant topic."

"Ehh? What was it? I wanna know." Negi pouted at the blonde, who just smiled at him and waved it off.

"C'mon, I think the tournament is starting."

"Ok nii-san."

The both of them walked to where the rest of them were when Naruto quirked an eye at those present, "Takamichi? You joining as well?"

"Naruto. I heard about your... um... problem." The teacher grinned widely, "Pity I wasn't there to watch, I'd have brought a recorder around just for shits and giggles."

"Ass."

"Idiot." Takahata shot back just as casually, "But your inclinations towards my ass aside, yes, I'm joining. I promised to have a real fight with Negi after all." He smiled kindly at a blushing Negi while Naruto just ruffled the boy's hair with a grin, "Becareful Takamichi, Negi won't go down so easily if you let your guard down."

"Mou... Nii-san!" the boy protested with a pout but blushed at the blonde's faith in him.

Asuna quietly listened to their conversation and did a double take at the two men before rubbing her eyes slightly when the memory of her painting off Takamichi and Naruto flashed in her mind unbidden. The way they stood beside each other and bantered and teased Negi who was in between them was eerily similar to her picture. She shivered a little. What the hell was wrong with her?

Just then a familiar voice rang out on the speaker, "Kazumi?"

"**Students of Mahora and visitors from outside the school! Welcome!"** an announcer's voice boomed over the speakers. "**Welcome to the resurrection of the 'Mahora Martial Arts Tournament!' Thank you for gathering on such short notice!"** The group looked towards the stage and saw Kazumi in a sleeveless white and red dress that ended mid thigh, along with matching gloves that end up just below her shoulder and knee high boots. **"The winning prize is ten million yen! Please cheer for this famous event!"**

**"Now, let's hear an opening speech from the person who bought this event! The most popular student int he academy, the mistress of 'Chao Bao Zi'; Chao Lingshen!"** Kazumi flamboyantly introduced the chinese girl. Chao was dressed in traditional Chinese clothing that had dragons on it for design.

**"I have bought this for one tournament for one reason,"** Chao stated. **"No matter if it is from the outer or inner world, I want to see the strongest person it has to offer. That is my reason. 20 years ago this event was to allow people from the inner world challenge each other. But because of small video camera being developed and the number of styles it is used the event had drastically shrunk down. "**

Naruto frowned slightly, a slight buzz had started to develop at the back of his head, it didn't seem like a migraine, more like something familiar, but he couldn't remember what. Something wasn't adding up.

"**But now I intend to revive the most exiting 'Mahora Martial Arts Tournament'! It is forbidden to use projectiles and bladed weapons! Curses are also forbidden! Any other techniques are okay as long as they do not fall under those two rules!"** Chao declared with a sly grin.

The buzzing grew stronger and Naruto rubbed his temples. Bleh, he wasn't going to think about it for now.

"You guys go ahead, I have a slight headache and I want to drop Akako off with Chachamaru."

Unseen to him, Konoka's lips tightened as she watched the blonde walk off, petting the fox on his shoulders, "Konoka-ojou sama? Are you alright? Are you sure you want to join this tournament? I mean..."

She smiled softly at the swordsgirl, causing Setsuna to get red and fluster, "I'm alright Se-chan. I can't quit. I have something I want to prove."

Setsuna looked worriedly at her princess before reluctantly acquiescing.

**With Naruto**

Spotting a girl with light green hair and wearing a traditional kimono, he sneaked up behind her before swiftly sweeping her off her feet.

"Naruto!" she reprimanded quietly but there was a hint of amusement in her voice.

The small fox clambered down between the two and quietly transformed in a small young red haired girl that jumped on the green haired girl with a happy cry, "Mama! Miss you!"

Chachamaru smiled softly and hugged the girl, "I missed you too, Akako. I'm sorry... Mama was busy today." She hesitated a little, not used to referring to herself in such an affectionate way, "I'll spend tomorrow with you ok?"

Akako smiled brightly, "Hai, mama!"

"Now let's go find seats and cheer for... Papa alright?" she blushed a little.

Naruto smiled and kissed Chachamaru on the cheeks and left a big sloppy one on Akako, making her giggle loudly. "Eww... Papa!" Akako pouted.

"I'll win this for both of you ok?"

"Hai Papa! Win Win!"

Naruto grinned before jumping away to join the line where everyone seemed to finding out their turns.

Landing stealthily beside a cloaked and hooded person he elbowed the man, "I'm surprised you manage to get away from your otaku tendencies to come to the tournament."

"Hmph, old men like us have our faults. Yours just isn't as obvious as mine. That reminds me, Evangeline is here as well."

"Yeah I know, she was the one that made me join," then Naruto sweat dropped, "By the way? It really feels weird being called old you know. Inside I've only been active for 17 years, so it doesn't really count right?" he pleaded with a pained face.

The both of them laughed, "What are you really doing here anyway?"

"I have some business... that and I have a gift for a certain Asuna Kagurazaka."

Naruto stared at him, trying to discern his motives, "Whatever it is, you won't hurt her right?"

"You wound me with your lack of faith." Kunel Sanders replied dryly.

"The only thing I have faith in you to do is be a perverted old man with a swimsuit fetish. Wait scratch that, you have a fetish for anything that remotely qualifies as kinky."

"Touche."

The both of them received their ballots, "Hmm... two people per group will pass into the real tournament," the blonde scratched his head as he glanced at the hooded man's ballot, "Oh look. We're in the same group. At least we won't have to fight each other right now."

"Agreed. The best should be saved for last. Meaning me."

"Dream on."

The two of them smiled as they walked to their stage.

Looking around he noted there was something fishy going on. Then again it might have just been coincidence, but everyone that was acquainted with each other was fortunate enough that they didn't have to fight someone they knew today. Konoka was in the same group as Negi, Setsuna was with Asuna, Kaede was with Kotarou, Mana with Ku Fei, Evangeline was with Takamichi and the blonde haired girl in black from the Mage meeting was with her red haired Kouhai. On the flipside, there wasn't anybody else of note except a suspicious blonde in a blue trench coat with a mask.

A tap on his shoulder brought him out of his reverie, "Shall we get started?"

"Started?"

The hooded man gestured at the 28 people that shared the stage with the two of them in group G.

"Ah... You want to do the honours or shall I?"

The hooded man shrugged casually and Naruto sighed, "You lazy bastard."

Snapping his fingers, his eyes blazed purple for a split second and quietly muttered, "Shinra Tensei."

Everybody on stage was violently thrown from the stage without preamble, leaving only the blonde, the hooded man and a stunned indigo haired boy with messy hair.

"Wha-what happened? Tha-that was a mistake right? Hahaha It must be. They must have left because they knew they couldn't beat me! Yeah! You two old men over there get ready to lose!"

Naruto glanced at Albiero, "You want to take him?"

"Nah. I don't want to dirty my robes."

"Wha-what are you two talking about! Don't ignore me dammit!"

Naruto glanced around the arena.

"Fight me! I am the great Shinji Mato-stomp-uouououh..."

Naruto had stomped on a loose floorboard, causing the other end to snap right into the indigo haired boy's privates.

The boy's eyes crossed before rolling up into his head and his jaw slackened at the amazing amount of pain before slumping to his knees, clutching his balls and started foaming at the mouth before ending his performance by falling flat on his face.

"Heh. Points to you for shutting him up in the most insulting way possible."

"I live to please." Naruto smirked at the man.

Just then a voice washed over the audience, it seemed a lot of them had been stunned into silence, Kazumi wasn't much better, "Wha-what is this? Group G is already over? What an upset! Two young men beat 28 others so easily! Clap loudly for Naruto Namikaze, the hunky, only male student of 3-A and... Kunel Sanders?"

The hooded man cheerfully waved at the applause while Naruto grumbled that the bastard hadn't done anything. Said bastard smirked at him.

"Oh yeah, what was that guy's name again?"

"Shinji something. Why?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to commit the look on his face as his balls were crushed into my memory; his attitude rubbed me the wrong way."

"Right... You're scaring me with that creepy laugh please shut up now."

"I can't help it..." Naruto pouted childishly, "He reminded me of someone else who's balls I crushed. Ah... good times."

******Broken Faith******

"Nii-san!" Negi yelled cheerfully as he barrelled into the blonde who was standing beside a green haired girl carrying a red haired child, "You passed as well!"

"Congratulations Negi-sensei."

Negi looked up, "Chachamaru? What are you doing here?"

"Ah. I was cheering for Naruto and Master."

Akako yawned on her shoulder, "If you'll excuse me, its Akako's bedtime. Naruto are you coming?"

The blonde leaned over and kissed her cheek, "You go ahead. I'll be there in a bit. I have to wait for tomorrow's fights to be announced."

Negi's jaw dropped as he watched the gynoid agree and shyly return the kiss before sedately walking away.

"Nii-nii-niisan?"

"Hmm?"

"Yo-yo-Chacha..."

Naruto sweat dropped as he saw Negi's head smoking, "We're dating, is something wrong?"

"N-no... I didn't ex-expect.. I mean..." he discreetly glanced at Asuna and adopted a troubled expression but kept his silence while Naruto shared his troubled looks and quietly added, "I don't want to hurt Asuna, and I won't willingly do it either, Negi. You know that."

"Ye-yeah... but I didn't realize, you know. I'm sorry I dragged you on that date."

"Eh... no worries. I'll have to apologize later for that kissing thing anyway."

"I guess."

"Negi-sensei! Naruto! Why are you two over here alone looking so somber? Shouldn't the both of you be more cheerful since you qualified in the Tournament?" the Narutaki twins yelled loudly as they bounced over to the two.

Naruto glanced at Negi and received a troubled nod in return, nothing more would be said until Naruto could resolve the situation. Sadly Negi couldn't see any way to resolve the problem without someone being hurt. That being said, this wasn't something he should be involved in either, in the end the only thing he could do was trust his nii-san to do the best thing.

"Nothing Fuuka, Fumika." He gave them a strained smile, "Come on, let's go. It looks like they're going to announce tomorrow's fights."

Fuuka shared a worried look with Fumika, something was wrong with the males of 3-A.

**"All right everyone the main matches start tomorrow at 8 AM at the Tatsumiya Shrine's Tournament stage," **Kazumi excitedly shouted, drawing the suspense out as much as she dared**, "The draws for the matches tomorrow have been revealed. So here they are!"** their hostess loudly declared as behind her, a white cloth dramatically fell to reveal the fights of the following day. "**The fights will go as stated and the same rules as the ones in the qualifiers still apply!"**

**Bracket A:**

**Tanaka vs Takane D Goodman**

**Negi Springfield vs Takahata Takamichi**

**Asuna Kagurazaka vs Setsuna Sakurazaki**

**Naruto Namikaze vs Konoka Konoe**

**Evangeline A. K. McDowell vs Yamashita Keiichi**

**Bracket B:**

**Mei Sakura vs Kotarou Murakami**

**Daigouin vs KuNel Sanders**

**Kaede Nagase vs N.U.**

**Mana Tatsumiya vs Ku Fei**

"WHAT! I'M AGAINST TAKAMICHI!" Negi shouted as he panicked. Konoka and Naruto stared at each other, one awkward, one intense before moving to chatter with Setsuna and Asuna who were both promising each other to fight each other with their very best.

Naruto's gaze turned to KuNel. The two looked at each other in the eye, "Remember, don't hurt her."

Albiero smirked before nodding and walking away.

Kaede muttered as she glanced at her opponent, the masked blonde in a blue trench coat that had qualified quietly with KuNel Sander's opponent, "I've never seen him around, his fights were precise but utterly lacking in any distinguishing features. His signature is muted as well. This might be a good fight after all." She turned to Mana and KuFei, "Do your best both of you, I want to fight either one of you. Make it a good one and show me how much both of you have improved eh?"

"Hmph, a ninja like you shouldn't talk so much." Mana grinned at her best friend.

"Yatta! I get to fight Mana then Kaede de-aru!"

Evangeline just complained, "What? I have to fight some no name idiot? What a waste of time."

"Ma, ma, Eva-chan. Look at your round, it's in the more highly anticipated one, plus you get to fight either Negi, Takamichi or myself before personally dealing with the pervert."

Evangeline looked again, "Hehehehe..."

Naruto sweat dropped at the evil laugh coming from the small vampire. The bouncing doll with a bloody grin didn't help her image either.

"Oh, and if we fight, no magic or jutsus alright?"

"What? Why!"she demanded.

"I don't know..." Naruto hesitantly spoke before motioning for everyone else to join him and Evangeline, "Something doesn't feel right. I'm not complaining but don't you think it's too much of a coincidence nearly all of us are acquainted and yet somehow, all of us who are capable of fighting on a level far beyond normal people managed to avoid fighting each other until a time where our skills can be on full display?"

Takahata scratched his stubble, "Agreed. So no magic or anything too flashy?" he asked while looking at Naruto for confirmation.

"It would be best. Personally I don't care about magic being revealed or otherwise, both sides have good arguments, but something about this just doesn't sit right with me, and it's making me edgy."

Takahata would never say it, but among the people he trusted, Naruto was one of those whose instincts he knew he could count on to guard his back the most. Instincts honed on a ruthless battlefield that exceeded even the ones in his youth.

_**Flashback**_

_A black masked man turned to the smoking man beside him. "Are you sure this is the spot?"_

_The man stubbed his cigarette before replying, "Yeah. The kidnappers are confirmed by the Italian Mage Association. The reason they called us in was because you are known for accomplishing missions with zero casualties and the victims are under aged girls from our territories." Noting his companion's hesitation he voiced his question, "What is it, You've asked me that question at least twice already. Is something wrong?"_

"_It's not wrong per say. Assuming it really was a kidnapping," he gestured at the big mansion his team was camped outside, "I doubt the culprits would hide out in such a big mansion. Even if it is out of the way."_

"_I suppose one of them may have gotten too rich and decided to splurge, and it's out of the way like you said, it fits the profile of a high class slavery outfit doesn't it?"_

_The masked man glanced at the lit mansion again. "Yes it does... but something bugs me. Especially the Italian Mage Leader."_

_Takamichi laughed, "The seventh, while he does give off a slimy feeling is known for being blunt. And he is one of the more powerful mages around, getting his position through pure power. Besides it was formally requested, I don't think they'll do anything."_

"_I see..."_

_**A few hours later**_

_6 dark figures snuck into the building._

_A masked man, Takahata and a three other mages._

_The masked man signalled for the other members to scout out the rooms in the offhand corridors while he and Takamichi scoped out the main hall._

_Just as the two of them stealthily entered the main hall the feeling of wards being erected caused both men to stiffen immediately as bars crashed down on every door and window loudly._

_Scratching the back of his head the masked man sighed while Takamichi chuckled, "Ok. Next time I'm not betting against you. Paying for your dinner for the next month is more than enough."_

_Slowly the sound of someone clapping filled the hall as bright lights lit all around the hall, "I'm amazed. We didn't even know you had infiltrated this building until you managed to get into the inner sanctum."_

_The masked man sighed again, "Good day to you too Settimo. I really shouldn't be surprised. The profiles you sent us about the kidnappers didn't match the high profile mansion they were supposedly hiding in. They were rich, yes, but they didn't get where they were by being stupid and hiding where every idiot could take a pot shot at them either. Instead the stage was set for something else more suited to the blunt but slimy tactics you're known for when you want to make an example out of your enemies."_

_A man walked out dressed in a black suit and top hat with a prominent mustachio, with at least 20 muscular guards around him._

"_Oh? You guessed it sooner than I expected. I'm really sorry about this, but our Mage Association, weakened in the war, really couldn't afford a prominent mage like you to rise from the ranks of the Eastern and Western Mage Associations."_

"_So this is a power struggle issue then?"_

_The moustachioed man smiled dryly, "As expected of someone like you to notice immediately."_

"_You do realize your Association sent in an official request right? And if we don't get back safely, your reputation will be under fire and will most likely face an investigation? And Takamichi can you stop smoking for one god damned second?" he grumbled._

_His companion just snorted before leisurely taking another drag._

"_The papers requesting the mission have already been disposed of by a friend. Officially, you and your men are simply vacationing on the Catafalco Islands but were unfortunately assassinated by a rogue Eastern mage. Without the official documents, nothing can be done even if we are linked to your deaths."_

_Instead of the reply he was expecting the masked man held out one hand to the man with stubble next to him. Takahata sighed and slapped an IOU into his gloved palm. "Ok, ok, you win. But two months is pushing it."_

_Settimo tensed, something was wrong, "What's going on? The both of you are surrounded and your three companions are already apprehended."_

_He didn't get the reply he was expecting, all he got was a whispered, "Boom." And the entire mansion was rocked by explosions._

"_Wha-what's going on! What have the two of you done?"_

_A lean young man dressed impeccably in a suit that contradicted his messy brown hair strode into the hall through the doors which had been blasted open by a man with frizzy gray hair, "Uncle. What is the meaning of this?" the young man quietly asked._

"_Decimo! How did you get here?"_

"_Naruto-san felt something wasn't right, so he sent a missive to our Headquarters." the young man paused before giving the masked man who seemed to be shuffling his feet in an embarassed manner, a completely deadpan stare._

_"Sorry, calling it a missive is an understatement. He sent a clone that somehow traveled 500 miles from here to our Main Headquarters in under 3 hours over land and water, bypassed all official channels and communication protocols, slipped through our ward scheme like it wasn't there and evaded 130 individuals affiliated with our Association, including our entire Security Force. I found him drinking a bottle of 1978 Montrachet wine while chatting with my wife about the finer points of miso ramen in my own private quarters."_

_Takamichi : face palmed._

_Naruto : "Um... Ehe?"_

_Decimo drew a deeeep calming breath and continued, "Anyway, once his clone was finally sober enough to tell us what happened, I checked the veracity of the missions the Italy branch requested. I was surprised to find that your branch asked for their assistance in capturing a group of criminals we had already apprehended barely a week ago. I barely managed to get here in time with my Guardians, but when we did, we found out from the three remaining mages outside that Naruto-san had already snuck in with Takahata-san and his clones as a diversion, to spring the trap so to speak, because he was bored." He gave the blonde who was sheepishly scratching his head a dry look._

"_I was doing what was right for our Mage Association! We cannot let the East and West outshine us!"_

_The newcomer looked sadly at the man, "Uncle... the war is over. There is no need for unnecessary power grabs anymore... Instead we need to work together with all of them. We're all mages sharing this one Earth."_

"_Damn you and your pacifist policies! Get them!"_

"_Sawada-san?"_

_The young man gazed sadly at the masked blonde in the black clothes he had taken to using as his mission uniform, "Do as you wish Naruto-san, but I only ask you do not kill them. No matter what, they are family."'_

"_Understood. Oh by the way?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Do you like poodles?"_

_**End Flashback**_

Evangeline hid a grin; the blonde was far more perceptive than most people. Meh, then again if she had to deal with only brainless idiots all the time it wouldn't be fun.

"Anyways, I may be over thinking this, so whatever. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Eva-chan, you coming?"

She shook her head, "There's going to be a tournament qualifier after party. Sake! Takahata! Come with me and don't be a sissy!" she loudly ordered the teacher.

Takahata sweat dropped before turning to Asuna, "Don't forget our promise alright? See you." The stubbled teacher left, following the cheerful vampire with a wave to everyone else. The girl watched her crush leave with a healthy glow on her cheeks.

Konoka sidled up to her side, "Hmhmhm... it looks like Asuna is finally growing up."

"Gyahhh! I-Its nothing like that!"

Konoka continued to harass Asuna all the way to their class's finishing party where Negi realized he had been side tracked by Mana and Yue, resulting in another day of no sleep, spent with Ayaka and the rest of his class.

Although he did recognize the same hooded man in the Martial Arts Tournament that Naruto-nii san seemed to know giggling in a corner during the cosplay competition.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto yawned as he stretched on his sun chair and shielded his eyes from the artificial sunlight. A snuffle from something resting on his chest drew his attention away from the window to his chest and its occupant. Running his fingers through Akako's long hair he smiled. The girl had tired herself out playing with Asuna, Setsuna and Konoka on the beach before falling asleep on him.

He sighed; things were a little tense between him and the three girls, especially after his inadvertent admission that he cared for them during the kissing incident. More particularly Konoka, but honestly he had no idea what to do. Nonetheless he was very grateful that the three of them were mature enough not to place the burden of that tension and awkwardness between them on an innocent Akako and not treat her any different. He kissed his sleeping daughter's forehead; she was so adorable when she yawned.

"Nii-san!"

"Yeah?" he lazily replied.

"We were talking about magic and Ki. I know you use something other than those so I was curious."

Gently getting up and laying Akako on the cushiony sun chair, he moved to where the others were, "So? What was the question?"

"We were curious, exactly what kind of energy that you use."

Naruto scratched his chin, absently noting that he needed to shave soon, "You already know that magic is using spiritual energy to control the latent energy in the air right? And Ki is the burning of one's internal energy?"

Chamo and Negi nodded while Kotarou just grunted irritably, he really wasn't interested in semantics but knew better than to say it in front of the blonde and receive another mouthful of dirt and lecture about brains and power. Asuna, Setsuna and Konoka just listened intently.

"Basically, energy in the world is divided into three broad categories, it gets more specific but I don't know enough to talk about the more esoteric versions. Spiritual energy; energy of the mind and soul. Ki; Energy of the physical body. Natural energy or energy in the atmosphere which is present in fire, water, air, earth, basically your environs.

Setsuna, Mana, KuFei and Kaede are all examples of people that use Ki while you and Evangeline are mages. They burn their internal energy to give them a boost in abilities. On the other hand, magic, the kind you and Evangeline use, uses spiritual energy to command and shape the energy in the environment. The one I use, chakra, combines spiritual energy and physical energy. That's about it in summary."

"Yeah, we knew that, but Chamo was talking about combining different energies. I was wondering if ratio would affect it, like more spiritual and less natural. Everybody combines it differently right? So how come the magic comes out the same?" Negi questioned.

"There's a difference of course, Negi you can sense when others are using that energy right?"

The boy nodded excitedly.

"Well, when you sense them, how can you tell who is using that energy?"

The boy scrunched his eyebrows in thought; he never really considered that before, "I don't know... it just feels like them I suppose."

"Correct. Basically everybody is different, so when they... activate it, for lack of a better word, like say someone who is a intellectual thinker, like you, that person might place more emphasis on the spiritual part. But that's where it gets complicated, there's a slight difference, your personality, attitude, the way you think and your affinity, they all play a role. Everybody combines their energies in different ways, and that's how you sense them; in the subtle difference of the way they form their magic or ki."

"Like say when you first met KuFei, you realize she is an energetic person, and her Ki burns passionately, different from say... Mana whose Ki burns more calmly. So next time you meet them, you can tell the difference between their signatures. It's still the same thing; it just feels different, like a thumb print so to speak. In general, all mages use magic, but the way they express that magic is different. For example, Eastern or Asian mages use charms and curses, Western or European mages use chants and spells, South European mages call their magic; flames and they generally manipulate them in their pure forms, here I quote a friend that told me this, _'mostly because they are so close to the catholic centre of the world, so magic is especially persecuted there, hence the change in names.'_ There, their mages blend in with the criminal elements of their population to hide from the Church, so if you meet a South European Mage, just because he calls himself a member of the mafia, it doesn't mean he's a bad guy. There is another two, the British Magical Government and the Australian one, but I don't know enough about them to describe it to you other then the fact that, and here I quote my friend again, 'The British Mages are backasswards perverts."

Naruto paused, "Anyway, that's why most mages can't sense me at first, the different combination of energy I use is on a different spectrum and hence they don't know how to look for it."

Negi jumped excitedly, "Can I learn how to use chakra as well? I mean I have access to both Ki and Spiritual power like you right?"

At this Kotarou perked up as well, anything that could make him stronger got his attention.

"Well... you can I suppose. The age limit to learn how to use chakra is about 11, which was mostly why," He looked at Konoka, Setsuna and Asuna, "I said I didn't have anything to teach either of you."

Looking back at Negi, he continued, "Think of the energy in your body as two different pipes. Willpower in one pipe, and Ki in another pipe. You need to learn how to intertwine the pipes to create chakra. Once you get too old, the pipes are too set in stone to manipulate anymore, so you can't force them together, therefore you can't make chakra. Since chakra is more tightly tied to your internal energies than magic which is part internal and external, we don't need to use words to channel that energy like magic users do, just hand signs, internal commands so to speak. People like me, whose pipes are already so intertwined cannot separate the spiritual part from the physical part, hence I'll never be able to use the kind of spells you do."

Kotarou high fived Negi, "Can we learn? Please?"

"Yeah sure, but there are downsides to chakra as well you know."

Negi deflated, "Downsides? What downsides?"

"Think of it this way, you use Ki. Which means you burn your body's energy. Once you get low, your body is tired. But your mind has not expended its reserves yet so you can still think somewhat clearly, with magic, it happens in reverse, your mind gets tired but your body can still move through muscle memory. Now with chakra, the results of my jutsus are more potent than your magic, but if you burn both reserves too much, what happens?"

Negi thought for a while, "You get tired, mentally and physically?"

"Correct. Burn too much and you will be useless on the battlefield. And if you force it even further, you can even die. Do you still want to learn?"

"Um... Can I think about it?"

"Sure. There's no harm in learning about it, as long as you don't overdo it."

Asuna snorted, "Knowing Negi, overdoing it will probably be the least of his problems."

Negi pouted and Naruto laughed.

****Broken Faith****

"**Good morning contestants**!" a Kazumi's voice rang out through the speakers of the room. All the contestants looked towards the front of the room, where she and Chao were standing along with the board of who was fighting who. They were currently wearing the same things from last night, though they were in different colours. Where Kazumi's was white, it was now black and Chao's was white instead of red.

Asakura chuckled sheepishly at the grumbles she received about her extra loud greeting, "Sorry everyone," Kazumi apologized sheepishly. "**Anyway, welcome and thanks for gathering! Thirty minutes from now, the first match will start! Let me explain the rules for this round. This will take place in a 15 m by 15 m arena, and each battle will take place in an allotted time of 15 minutes. A defeat will be determined by being down for ten-seconds, out of the ring for ten-seconds, fainting or surrendering. In a situation where the winner cannot be determined within that time, we will resort to a vote from the audience. The rules from last night also apply.**"

Negi looked around the room in fascination; his group was here, consisting of him, Kotarou, Asuna, Setsuna and Konoka. Takahata-sensei was waving at them from a corner with Evangeline-sensei. Naruto was talking quietly with the hooded man from the cosplay competition. Kaede, Mana and Ku Fei-sensei was walking towards them. In a corner standing alone was the man dressed in a blue trench coat from yesterday, only this time he had a hood covering his hair and swathed completely in a light blue cloak, the spiky haired man with weird ear adornments was standing near him stoically. In another corner were two people completely swathed in black travelling cloaks and in the middle of the room was someone who looked like a karate user warming up while talking to someone who looked like he was impersonating Bruce Lee. Badly.

He clenched his fist and slowly let out a breath before looking up again with bright eyes. He was going to win this. He would surpass his father.

******Broken Faith******

What am I doing here again?" Chisame asked herself, as she stood front row to for the tournament. "Oh yeah, Negi-sensei gave me a free ticket to the tournament as an apology for forcing me to join that embarrassing competition." She blushed slightly at the memory of being stripped in front of an audience before grumbling to herself, "At least this is better than working at the stupid haunted house."

At another part of the shrine stood the library club still decked out for the haunted house. "I wonder if Negi-kun is going to be okay? I mean there are so many adults in this too," Haruna stated to both Yue and Nodoka.

"Don't worry Negi-sensei is very strong, so it's ok. Right, Yue?" Nodoka asked her best friend. Yue seemed to be broken out of her thoughts as she stuttered.

"Y-yeah that's right," the blue haired girl replied.

"Huh? Yue did something happen," Haruna asked. Yue immediately regretting the stutter in her voice at her answer.

"Eh...no not really," Yue said not meeting the other girl's eyes.

"Really?" Haruna asked her face darkening with a hint of perverseness.

'_Damn she is scary when she does that,'_ Yue thought offhandedly. The blue haired girl was really hoping that Haruna doesn't find out about the little talk she had with Negi, as well as her feelings.

Also at the shrine were Natsumi and Chizuru. Chizuru was also in an elegant Chinese dress except black, and had her hair in a ponytail in the back. Natsumi was wearing a fairy costume, complete with wings and antennas along with a pink dress. "Chizu-nee Kotarou-kun is in the first match!" Natsumi told the older girl.

"Oh my... I hope he doesn't get hurt too badly..."

"Ano... what do you mean? This is just a normal competition right? They can't get hurt that badly."

Chizuru smiled slightly and decided not to mention that neither Naruto nor Negi was exactly normal, even by Kotarou's standards, instead she changed the subject, "Natsumi? who do you do you want to win?" Chizuru asked her friend.

"Huh?"

"Who do you want to win?" she repeated.

"Ah...I want Kotarou-kun to win," the red head said embarrassed. Natsumi nodded with a small smile. "How about you Chizu-nee?"

"Hmhmhm, who knows..."

"Eh?"

"Fufufu, lets just say I'm not a betting person alright?" Chizuru said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

"Ok!"

"**To everyone in the audience! Thank you for waiting**!" Kazumi shouted to the crowd through the mic, increasing the already fever pitch excitement. "**In a few short minutes, we will finally be starting the first match of the Mahora Martial Arts Tournament!**" As she spoke Kotarou, and surprisingly Mei walked onto the arena. Kazumi pointing to Kotarou said, "**In this corner, we have the mystery shounen ninja, contestant Kotarou Murakami!**" She then pointed towards Mei. "**And in the other corner, the second year middle school girl contestant, Mei Sakura!**"

"What's with this! Those are just some brats!" one of the audience members shouted out.

"What the meaning of this organizer!" another one demanded.

"**Their abilities were already proven in the preliminaries! There will be no arguments!**" Kazumi shouted back. Within the crowd Kotarou had unknowingly made a small fan club of girls calling him cute.

"Eh! You're that onee-chan from the other day!" Kotarou shouted.

"Ah... I'm sorry about that day. You were beaten easily by Onee-sama, but I have to thank you for helping with the World Tree incident as well Kotarou-san," Mei said with a bow.

Kotarou coloured at the reminder of being knocked out so easily and hurriedly changed the topic, "Why are you in this place?"

"Uh...um...I don't actually want to be here but..."

"Ano... Will she be alright? I mean Kotarou isn't really good at holding back." Negi asked worriedly from one of the contestant benches.

"Fufufu," Takane chuckled as she flung her black cloak off dramatically. "Good morning Negi-sensei."

"Eh! you're the one from yesterday!" Negi exclaimed standing up surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you surprised? The reason I'm here is to discipline you and your blonde friend!" Takane stated. "You two keep doing reckless things like getting infected by the world tree and joining this odd tournament! If we don't punish you we will never be in agreement, that's the reason we joined this tournament! That and I want to get back at him for the teasing..." she mumbled the last part so quietly no one heard, "No, no, I mean I wanted to get back at him for losing to him that day! Besides you should worry about your friend not Mei. Mei may look like a sweet child but she graduated from a magical school in America with straight A's. Even at her young age she can already do many spells without incantations. And when we win we will take the 10 million yen as your punishment!"

"Ano... I wasn't really interested in the money..."

"I don't care!"

Negi sweat dropped at the rather high strung blonde and sighed before chalking it up as another thing to blame his Nii-san for. If he hadn't gone berserk and done something to her, he wouldn't have a high strung blonde woman itching to take it out on him.

"Where is your blonde friend anyway!" Takane demanded with a slight blush.

Negi jerked and looked around in surprise, come to think of it he hadn't seen Naruto since the waiting room, "I... don't know. He seems to be doing something else at the moment, sorry..."

"Don't apologize! Honestly! It's not your fault so why are you so meek?"

Negi decided not to reply.

Back on the arena the two contestants were still talking. "I...don't want to do this but this is senpai's orders. I have to defeat you Kotarou-san,' Mei said as she discarded her cloak.

"Big words coming from a cute face," Kotarou smirked getting in to his fighting stance. Inwardly he was wondering exactly how to defeat her without hitting a girl. Sighing he just decided to do the easiest thing that came to mind.

Just as she called forth her pactio, Kotarou sped forward and did an upward palm thrust just short of hitting the girl, using the air pressure of the palm thrust to send her flying out of the stage and into the water, Kotarou sighed, after all the build up about how she knew a lot of spells without incantations and straight A's, it was rather disappointing...

"Help I can't swim!" Mei shouted during the ten count, forcing Kotarou to help her.

"**What an upset victory! With just one move Kotarou-san has shown why he is one of the best fighters competing! But he hit a girl..."**

"I didn't hit her! It was air pressure! Just air pressure!" Kotarou yelled as he dragged Mei back on land.

"**Next, we have the mysterious KuNel Sanders and the Bruce Lee impersonator, Daigouin!"**

A hooded man suddenly appeared on stage, completely calm and unruffled as his opponent joined him on stage. Barely thirty-seconds after the match started of random kicking and punching, Albireo just hit the guy in the chest with his palm and he went down easily.

"**I-in a flash! A clean counter with the right palm and KuNel Sanders has brought down Daigouin! Even though KuNel seemed to be losing but won with that huge reversal. With a costume that completely hides the face, the mysterious KuNel breaks through the first round!**" Kazumi yelled excitedly

"**Now we come to the third round of our B bracket matches. The mysterious N.U and our very own elegant Mahora Academy Ninja, Kaede Nagase!"**

The silent hooded man in the blue trench coat that covered his entire body, hiding his limbs from view, walked up onto the stage without any flashy moves while Kaede leapt down from the contestant benches.

"I hope to learn a lot from you today N.U.-san." She only got a silent nod in return.

Kaede frowned, the man refused to let out any information out about him, manner of speech, attitude, nothing. Completely blank.

As soon as the bell rang she flashed forward with a _shundou_, appearing behind the cloaked man with one hand about to strike the back of his head only for a hand to flash out of his cloak and stop her blow completely before pulling her forward till their bodies were nearly touching while pivoting.

"Gak!"

The man had spun around and attacked her back with an obscured elbow without any preamble.

Kaede immediately felt darkness start to creep around her field of vision when she heard a few words from the man, "Shundou is a good move, miss. But the problem with it is, it can only move in a straight line. Predicting where you will appear next was easy since you underestimated me, I'm sorry I had to make our match so short... when this is over, I'll gladly fight you properly."

Kaede let out a low chuckle before falling completely unconscious, "Yare yare, it looks like I have a lot to learn eh _N.U_.?"

Evangeline cocked one eyebrow, in that one split second, he had attacked six times, landing precise elbow strikes on pressure points across her shoulders and spine, similar to her own style when she wasn't using magic, only more aggressive. His cloak also obscured any movements his limbs and muscles made, making it extremely hard for martial artists like Kaede and Ku Fei that depended on reading their opponents muscles to predict his moves with any accuracy.

Short, fast, precise and brutal. How charming.

Kazumi goggled, she had been expecting Kaede to win without any problems against some no name person with an identity crisis. **"A-amazing! What an upset victory! I just saw his cloak shift a bit and Kaede Nagase, my classmate, someone I know is very strong, fainted just like that! winner, N.U.-SAN!"**

Gathering her wits again, Kazumi continued to yell into her mic,** "Next! We have another two of my classmates. The campus wide favourite to win this competition, Master Ku Fei and her opponent, the sexy and only daughter of the Tatsumiya-shrine, Mana Tatsumiya-san!"**

**(I hate doing it like this, it feels so unprofessional but I don't want to redescribe a canon match, sorry guys.)**

Canon Match between Ku Fei and Mana Tatsumiya

Sacrificing her right arm to take the majority of the coins Mana flung at her especially since it was already broken, Ku Fei managed to get in close and lay one palm on Mana's abdomen before slumping to her knees.

"_Sei Shin Suikyou Shou_!"

Mana spit some blood out, "Heh... I see... an internal damage technique. Not bad Ku Fei. You have improved a lot."

"Heh, I'm happy to be praised by you de-aru."

Mana fell down face first while Ku Fei struggled to her feet.

"**Ah! Competitor Mana is down! Aaaand the upset victory goes to Master Ku Fei! With this the B Bracket Tournaments are Over! Please have some refreshments while we prepare for the A bracket Tournaments!**

******Broken Faith******

"Thank you Tatsumiya-san for losing well ne?" Chao said from within a computer room in the shrine. "It would have been bad if the number one candidate for victory lost in the first round. Thanks to the unbelievably inhuman feats so far by you, Kotarou, Ku Fei, and N.U.-san performance the crowd is now more lively. Here is some compensation." Chao offered Mana an envelope.

Mana who had changed into a short sleeve white jacket, a black one piece body suit that looked like a swim suit, and the actually leg long boots, that was strapped to a garter shook her head. "No, I'm not going to take it," she told the Chinese girl.

"Oh?"

"As it was, I was serious in that fight. As a normal person, Ku is without a doubt the strongest of the group. Besides," Mana looked out the window and saw Negi worrying over Ku's arm while the blonde was nowhere to be seen. "If I take that, I feel like I'll be hated by that kid and his brother. To them, loosing on purpose when your opponent is pitching their ideals against that of another on the toss of a coin is dishonourable and no better than spiting on someone's ideals."

She smiled at the Chinese girl, "Their just that idealistic, isn't that so?"

Chao gave her a tiny grin, "That and plenty stubborn."

******Broken Faith******

**AN**

**Yes. He is** _**that **_**Shinji**

**The rest of the Martial Arts Tournament next Chapter.**

**Otheticket : Not to be a ungrateful bastard, far from it, I thank you for all the reviews. But really, I'm not hard up for it, and I would prefer it if the reviews were the substantial kind commenting or criticising. When you review like that in a row with one letter reviews, its uh... kinda embarrassing and it makes me feel like I'm a review whore ya know. Really, no offense, and I'm still grateful for it. Lol. **

**Everyone else as well, don't feel obliged to review just cos I'm urging for it. The 550 reviews i mentioned is smply me wanting to buy sometime to let my fic settle down. I just happened to look at the stats of this fic, and you know what i saw? the first 6 which were spaced about a month apart had about 60 reviews each. After that, because my finals were done and I concentrated on writing, I've been putting out chapters, one average 1 per week, sometimes 1 per day and since the new chapters keep coming out, they only get about 25 reviews and far less love. Thus, I thought this was a good time to let it lie. Mature a bit. I don't wanna burn out, ya know? And if that _still_ doesn't dissuade those idiots that feel the need to rant about authors with sickening attitudes about holding updates back, **THE NEXT TIME YOU WONDER WHY GOOD AUTHORS WITH GOOD FICS QUIT THE SITE AND ABANDON THEIR STUFF, LOOK IN THE GOD DAMN MIRROR AND REMIND YOURSELF NO ONE IS BEING PAID TO WRITE HERE. THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS APPRECIATE US, AND THE ONLY WAY TO DO THAT IS THROUGH REVIEWS, **so in a way, reviews is the currency of the fanfiction world. grow the fuck up, anonymous dude with a streetlight up your ass (CoolWhip)**

_**Sei Shin Suikyou Shou : Penetrating Water Surface Palm **_


	19. Stop Holding Back

**Broken Faith 19**

**Stop Holding Back**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything. Don't own Naruto, Don't own Kateikyo Hit man Reborn, Don't own Mahou Sensei Negima. Don't own Gundam either. **

**Anyway, this came up early because of another achievement, besides we nearly hit 550 in less than one week, Good Job and Thank you to my reviewers by the way. So much for the review haters *blows raspberry*. Broken Faith is now listed on the fanfic recommendations under Negima! on tvtropes, so thank LordGale119 for doing the dirty work. xD Here's to hoping this fic gets its own page next, but I suppose it needs to get a lot longer before we can see a decent page on it. **

**Cheers and enjoy the chapter. John.**

Some reviewers have expressed concerns about that conversation between Naruto and Konoka giving them the impression that Naruto is being an emo jerk. To me, Naruto isn't going to give up, but he isn't some idealistic idiot that thinks Kami will come down and fix everything either, so he is preparing for eventualities without being too obvious like distancing himself. He just doesn't want to hurt Konoka in the long run. Don't be mistaken, he likes her; he just doesn't want her to get hurt. Plus, the way he dealt with it, the jerk part, I fully admit that is my fault. You see I want Naruto to grow, he is an expert in the battlefield, but he isn't that good with people yet, so I wanted him to mature in that aspect and to grow up in the way he deals with his inevitable death. In summary I wanted to make Naruto grow up, but in order to grow up, he has to grow up from something but I didn't do it very well. I know the concept I wanted to present in my fic, but I admit I didn't do very well at expressing that concept on paper. Hence him seeming like a jerk.

**Soundtrack List**

Gundam Seed Destiny OST – Honoo no Tobira

Macross Frontier OST - Lion

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Gattai Nante Kuso Kurae

Xenosaga 3 OST – Fatal Fight

Gundam Seed Destiny OST - Kimi Wa Boku Niteiru

******Broken Faith******

The crowd roared in approval as a blonde girl punched the robot clear off the stage in her embarrassment. Of course they were also roaring in approval at the fact that she was as good as naked.

Up on the roofs another blonde gave his very excited companion a disturbed glance.

"Albireo... if you don't stop jumping up and down and trying to get pictures, I swear to God I'll make you think you were a girl, then you don't have to be so excited about taking pictures when you can just look in the mirror."

The man pouted at him, causing Naruto to shiver at the thought of a full grown man giving him puppy dog eyes like that, "Come on, I rarely ever get out to enjoy the weather, at least let me stockpile all this wonderful material before locking myself back down there again."

The blonde sighed, "Whatever, just settle down. Anyway, what do you think of the next match?"

Albiero chuckled, "Knowing Takamichi, Negi will win and lose. No doubt."

Naruto grinned, "Yeah, that's what I thought as well."

"And you? You'll be fighting your students right?"

"Meh..."

After a couple of minutes they heard Kazumi start to speak again as Takahata and Negi both walked on stage, **"Now, on this side is the formidable school district instructor whose name is known to all the delinquent's, Takamichi T. Takahata!"** Naruto heard the crowd go wild as that was announced. **"In the other side is the child teacher of rumors who started working in Mahora last year! Negi Springfield!"**

The blonde grinned at the wildly clapping crowd, no matter what, things like this never failed to make his blood boil for a good fight.

**"Just by himself, Takahata has suppressed the various disputes and fights in the school. The nickname given to him was 'Glasses of Death-Takahata! Surely he's the mightiest school district instructor! How will you fight child teacher?" **Kazumi announced. **"So for the bets have Glasses of Death Takahata with overwhelming popularity! Certainly the results of this fight is brighter than the sun!" **

Negi gulped slightly as he heard the man with a pompadour style commenting on the prowess Takahata-sensei showed in the prelims.

"Maa maa, there's no need to be nervous. Just do your best."

Negi nodded nervously at Takahata's advice before drawing a deep calming breath and stepping into a steady stance, _'A 10 metre range attack that is aimed at the chin. Alright! I can do this! I'm not giving up. Even if I lose here, as long as I don't give up, it's my win!'_

Takahata smiled. Whatever the boy was thinking, it worked. Negi's fists had steadied and firmed as bright eyes watched his every move carefully.

"**START!"**

Without missing a beat Negi charged forth, simultaneously activating the Cantus Bellax and a silent Deflexio. He noted the slight flashes around him as whatever Takahata-sensei was throwing at him was deflected by his barrier.

Skidding to a stop right behind a slightly surprised Takahata, the boy ducked and swept Takahata's feet out from under him with a leg sweep, before the older teacher could regain his balance the younger teacher slipped under the airborne Takahata and slammed both palms into Takahata's back.

"Guk!"

Takahata flew into the air and tried to right himself to aim at Negi, when he finally turned around to face the arena from his vantage point, his eyes widened.

Negi wasn't there.

A shadow appeared over his shoulder with determined eyes.

Flinging his elbow around to defend himself, the presence that had suddenly appeared behind him simply deflected his elbow before landing an axe kick charged with a Sattica Magica Fulguratio crashing into the back of Takahata's neck.

Takhata grimaced at underestimating Negi so much. Seeing the young teacher falling down above him at a slower pace, he smiled, half in pride that the boy had become so strong, and half in amusement.

The crowd went silent as Takahata was tripped, sent airborne and smashed into the ground with awesome force from the sky, all in the span of 3 seconds.

The shadow that had axe kicked the infamous Glasses of Death landed lightly on the edge of the stage and rubbed a slight bruise on his cheek while watching the dust cloud Takahata's crash landing had kicked up carefully.

"**Wha-what is going on? What an upset! Has Negi-sensei won?"**

Negi rubbed some blood away and glanced at the stain on his fingers before moving back into a ready stance, 'He managed to get that one hit off while falling... so he can only hit what he can aim at, he can't use that technique when I'm too close and that leg sweep showed me that his footing doesn't matter, the hands in his pockets compensate for the stability... so as long as I stay behind him, or near him I should be fine.'

A silhouette calmly walked out of the dust cloud while dusting his suit off, "Heh, very good Negi. You've improved a lot. But I think you probably shouldn't listen to Naruto too much,"

The teacher cricked his neck, "If that were any other person, you would probably have snapped his neck off."

Negi grinned, "I know you and Naruto-nii san are good friends, therefore it goes without saying you're bound to be just as stubborn and hard to put down as he is." Negi suddenly started moping in a corner, "I spent so much time thinking off a special move of my own, that bastard agreed to let me try it out on him. So I hit that bastard 10 times over with that kick. He just smiled at me and said it tickled."

"Oi! I'm an orphan not a bastard!"

Takahata grumbled under his breath before discreetly flipping off the figure on the roof that had spoken, turning back to the moping Negi, "Maa maa, it was a good move. It didn't work on Naruto because his head is harder than..." Takahata scratched his chin in thought, "Actually his head is the hardest thing I've ever seen. Period."

"Oi! I'll kick your ass!"

Takahata and Negi readied themselves again, sensing the moment of levity was over and charged, meeting each other head on before disappearing and reappearing with unbelievable speed around the arena while exchanging powerful blows, Negi making sure he stayed near Takahata no matter what.

"**Ah! I know it's a really flashy fight but both of you are out of bounds! I'll have to take count if you don't get back in!"**

Takahata smirked before skidding to a sudden stop, causing Negi to overshoot him right into an incoming foot that kicked the boy back into the arena, Negi landed hard but before he could get his guard up his body was wracked with pain as a few invisible blows punched through his unsteady defense, 'Guh! The chin! His aiming for the chin again!'

Unfortunately before he could respond he received a hit that was more powerful than anything else so far from Takahata who was casually walking towards him.

"Not bad Negi. You managed to avoid that on by twisting your body slightly. Can you see my attacks now?"

Negi struggled to his feet and chuckled in response, "A little, if you keep repeating those attacks, sooner or later I'll be able to see them entirely." Without saying anything more he dashed forward, intent on taking the initiative.

Takahata smiled and took half a step forward and simply tripped Negi from his Instant movement.

"Like Kaede-san's opponent said, instant movement is a good technique, but once executed you cannot change direction or stop before you reach your target, Kaede-san was unfortunate in that her opponent immediately took the opening and landed a decisive hit before she could regain her balance, most fighters can also discern where their opponents will reappear as well if it's used too frequently. That being said, I can use Instant movement too."

"Wha?" Negi's eyes widened as Takahata's presence suddenly registered behind him, ducking instinctively he landed a reverse kick on the surprised Takahata.

"Oh? You have good instincts as well. But can you keep up?"

Albiero grunted as Takahata started to speak about his teacher between flashing around the arena and landing quick blows before flashing back out of Negi's range. He gave a small smile in remembrance of Gateau.

"An old friend?"

"A good old friend."

Naruto smiled, "Yeah, I get the feeling."

"And that's why I call you an old man."

Negi grunted from receiving another blow to the gut, he was starting to see slight afterimages from Takahata's attacks but he couldn't keep up with the so called _iaiken _and_ instant movements _at the same time.

He couldn't run either; Takahata was making sure that he remained more or less in the centre of the arena where everything in the arena was within his reach.

The young teacher sighed and his shoulders slumped as his arms fell to his side, feigning despair, Takahata seeing the boy drop his guard immediately attacked with a blow headed for the boy's chin to finish the fight.

Just as his fist nearly reached the boy's chin, Takahata quirked an eyebrow, there was a small smile playing on the boy's face.

The boy twisted his head slightly and grimaced as the blow hit his shoulder instead of his chin, flashing a few steps forward, right under theoutstretched arm Negi immediately deflected the incoming elbow before slamming his own elbow into Takahata's abdomen before flowing into a modified two fisted Raika HouKen. One fist to the torso and another on his chest.

Takahata was blown completely back into the water and slammed into the wall with a resounding smash.

Everyone's jaw fell, **"What was that! it was even more powerful than that earlier kick! Will Negi-sensei really come out victorious this time?"**

A slight chuckle told everyone that the more experienced teacher was alright.

Chisame was practically vibrating in her seat at the idiots around her that brushed off the frankly unbelievable and inhuman feats of skill and power. No one should have been able to survive being hit like that. Even if Negi-sensei's glowing punches didn't hurt, slamming into a wall like that would have killed anybody. Was she the only sane person here!

"That was good Negi. That was very good. You couldn't properly see or dodge my attacks, so you drew me into an attack you knew was coming before stepping into my guard to deal a critical hit. In return I'll show you something very interesting. Something my teacher taught me."

The teacher lifted his hands as something started glowing in his palms, causing Negi to tense himself and prepare to defend anything his senior could throw at him.

"Magic in the left fist, Ki in the right fist." The glow got even brighter as he moved squashed the glowing orbs together, "Combine."

There was an explosion of energy in the arena as Negi desperately tried to squint through the bright glare to gain any hint on what the teacher was doing.

His eyes widened in shock as he felt a sudden shockwave burst out of the light at ridiculous speeds, barely tilting to the side, he gritted his teeth as he dodged the majority of the attack felt the hit completely numb his right shoulder.

"This is what we call _Kanka. _Try to dodge properly this time Negi. That first hit was just for show."

"Shit."

Negi desperately jumped away as something hit the spot where he had been standing a split second ago powerful enough to leave a crater in the floorboards.

"Wha-wh-ah!"

He started running as Takahata didn't give him an opportunity to speak and continued raining something similar to his earlier attacks only magnified in power.

Running around the arena from the big blasts, Negi desperately tried to think of a solution, he couldn't keep dodging. Gritting his teeth he hurriedly timed the pause between each large shockwave, there! Skidding to a sudden stop he spun and charged at Takahata only for the older teacher to stop him with a normal _iaiken_ and follow it up with a bigger one.

Desperately the boy threw himself onto the floor but the attack hit his left foot. A slight cracking sound told him it was at least fractured. Another shockwave was launched at him, frowning at his hurt leg, he called out a defensive spell since he couldn't avoid the blow with his hurt leg. He wasn't really expecting it to work, so when the _Flans Paries Aerialis_ successfully stopped the attack he gaped for a moment, allowing Takahata to land a normal blow, knocking him onto his knees.

"Is this your limit Negi? Did you know that at the moment Naruto is only slightly weaker than me in terms of pure power? But if we fight, he will win every time, if only because he uses very unorthodox methods."

"If you're still angry about that loss, next time; don't wear pants that tear easily!"

Takahata face palmed and punched in the direction of the voice.

"OI! Watch it!"

"Nonetheless, that is our limit. My teacher and his friends; they are far more powerful than either of us. If this is your limit, you will never reach us or your father."

Negi clenched his fist and charged, ignoring the pain in his foot; he recklessly punched the calm teacher, only for his fist to go through an afterimage.

"If this is your best, I'm not impressed."

Takahata had flashed behind him and cocked one fist. Time slowed and all Negi had time to do was turn his head to see the incoming shockwave.

Shielding his eyes, he felt his ribs creak under the force of the attack as he was slammed deep into a crater.

Groaning in slight pain he tried to move a limb but nothing was responding.

"**Wha-wha! Contestant Negi is barely hanging on by a thread! Wa-wait this isn't the time for that!"** Kazumi rushed to the groaning Negi's side, "That was too ruthless Takahata-sensei! We already knew you would win, you didn't have to go this far."

Kazumi scrambled to Takahata and lifted his arm, **"En-enough, look, Contestant Takahata wins! Now we ha-"**

"I haven't won yet." Takahata cut her off and gazed at Negi, "Is it over Negi? Are your dreams only worth this much?"

**Play Gundam Seed Destiny OST – Honoo no Tobira**

The crowd started muttering, grumbling at Negi to give up. So that he didn't have to suffer anymore.

"Tch, NEGI! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IDIOT? STAND UP!"

Negi blearily looked at the girl who had shouted, "A-asuna..."

_Why? Wasn't she rooting for Takahata-sensei?_

"Ne-Negi-sensei! Don't give up! You can win!" – "No-nodoka..."

_She wanted to help me find my father. She put in so much effort, but have I? The kind of effort that mattered._

"Negi-bouzu! You can do it!" – "Ka-kaede?"

"Negi!" – "Ku Fei-sensei..."

_Ku Fei-sensei had taught him so much. Was losing here really ok? Was everything she had taught him useless in the end?_

A quiet voice spoke in his head, _"Is this where you stop? Were your promises empty? Will you give up like this every time a wall blocks your way?"_

Na-naruto-nii san...

He hadn't thought that he wanted to win this badly. He thought it was ok to lose as long as he didn't give up right?

"STAND UP. DON'T GIVE UP. WIN WITH YOUR OWN METHODS, YOUR OWN WORDS. SURPASS US!" someone roared, making everybody in the audience still.

Negi roared back, "WHO THE HECK SAID I WAS GIVING UP? I WAS JUST RESTING DAMMIT! "

He exploded from the crater, 6 glowing orbs surrounding him, instead of flashing towards the teacher in one predictable go he flashed in short bursts so that Takahata couldn't stop him.

Landing right below Takahata in a crouch he spun around to avoid a large blast before using the momentum from his pivot to counter attack with 3 quick,_ "Raika HouKen!"_

Takahata was launched upwards again and Negi leapt up to follow the teacher, hitting him another 3 times with _his Raika HouKen_ and launching the teacher even higher with each blow before landing and preparing himself.

As the stunned teacher reached the peak of his momentum and started falling back to earth, Negi started chanting quietly, "_Veniant, spiritus aeriales fulgurientes, Cum fulgurationi flet tempestas austrina,"_

Just as Takahata was about to land, Negi leapt above Takahata with an _instant movement. _With his fists crossed in front of him, he crashed Takahata into the ground like a comet with the force of the instant movement, full body blow and releasing the _Jovis Tempestas Fulgurientes _in a manner similar to how he had been using the _Sattica Magicas_ up till now.

"_Raika HouKen : Nii-gata!"_

A pillar of light appeared from where Takahata was smashed into the ground before an explosion rang out from the arena.

Kazumi grunted and fought against the shockwave, once everything seemed to settle down she tried to peer into the dust cloud, "**C-contestant Negi's ultimate technique 'some-kind of-incredible-glowing-body blow' HIIIITS!" **Kazumi shouted into the mic. **"Furthermore, what an intense strike that smashed right into the ground! A giant reversal. However the 15 minutes mark has elapsed and this match has timed out! Contestant Negi is all ragged and torn up too. Now then who wins? What about Contestant Takahata?"** Kazumi then started the countdown. But when she reached five, Takamichi sat up.

He smiled at Negi and ignored the announcer's continued countdown, "That was a good hit. A very good hit against me who even fought seriously against someone twenty years younger than me." Takahata smiled and gave Negi a thumbs up, "This match, is your victory."

As he said that, Takahata fell flat on his back a smile on his face just as the count reached 10. **"Contestant Negi wins! The ten year old teacher advances to the second round! Woooohooo!"**

Everbody cheered as Negi grinned widely.

******Broken Faith******

Up on the roofs Albiero looked at his softly smiling companion.

"I'm surprised you encouraged him to continue. This wasn't a serious fight; there was no need to push himself like that."

Naruto smiled, "True. But I wanted him to push himself. Falling back to rest and gather your strength again is good, but if he keeps doing that every time he encounters a block, he will never make significant progress in time and he will never learn how it feels to really reach the bottom, how it feels when he loses but keep hope at the same time. This fight was an example, so that when the time comes for a real battle, he won't give up, even when he has reached rock bottom and it showed him those who had faith in him."

He looked up at the sky, "I think that was what Takahata wanted to show him. How it feels to fight a nearly unstoppable opponent. Despair when you don't have the power to fight back, but never losing hope and gaining the wisdom to know when to not give up and when to retreat."

"Hmph... Now you _really _sound like an old man."

"Heh, for once it ain't so bad."

"Two of your students fight next, what will you do?"

The blonde stood up, looked down at where Konoka, Asuna, Setsuna and everyone else were congratulating Negi while the Arena was being fixed. He smiled sadly at their happy faces as Asuna hit Negi's back with a blush while Konoka hugged him.

He didn't join them.

_He couldn't._

Naruto stretched before walking off.

"Oh? Where are you going? Aren't you going to watch?"

"Nah. I have something planned. Remember, don't hurt her."

"Honestly, I'm not going to. I just have a gift, or rather something that was originally hers. I just intend to return it back to her."

Naruto waved at him over his back, whether the blonde heard his words or not, Albiero couldn't tell.

******Broken Faith******

Chao sat on her chair, her fingers playing with one strand of hair while she watched Negi and his friends celebrate with a smile that disappeared as soon as she felt a presence approach her.

Grimacing slightly before putting on her cheeriest smile, she greeted the presence.

"Naruto-san. I hope you had fun with the Tournament so far, if not how can I help you?"

"I have a small request."

"Oh? And what request is that? If it is within my power, I'll be happy to help and try to fulfil it for you."

Naruto outlined his plan to her.

Chao frowned slightly, "I-I see... this isn't standard procedure though, and it might unsettle the crowd as well as make the other contestants try to do the same thing though..."

"If its favouritism you're worried about I'll willingly contribute another 5 million to the prize, specifically for the winner of this match, and another 5 million to the grand prize."

"In that case... I don't see a reason why not."

Naruto smiled slightly at the small girl while pushing the slight buzz in his head aside, "Thanks. That'll help a lot." Without realizing it his hand had stretched forward to ruffle her hair.

"Heee..." Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the girl as she nuzzled back into his hand as if silently asking for him to pet her more.

He just kept petting her but drew the line when she started purring, "Ahem."

"Ah! Sorry, sorry. I got carried away. Hehehe." The girl chuckled sheepishly before a slight beeping drew their attention, "Oh, I'm sorry but I have something to do. I'll pass on the instructions to Asakura-san so don't worry about anything."

She bowed politely and left the platform as did Naruto.

******Broken Faith******

"Ah? Se-chan? Where did you and Asuna go? Your match with Asuna-chan is starting soon you know. Huhuh... did you two go somewhere to do something naughty?"

Asuna blushed hard and smacked the back of Konoka's head lightly, "We're not like you!" while Setsuna who was as red as a tomato spluttered before relpying, "Go-gomen Konoka-ojou sama. We-we weren't doing anything like that! I only like yo- I mean, we were just helping Takahata-sensei with something and we're going to get changed for the match now."

"Hmm... I guess I'll follow. I was told my uniform was ready as well, and my fight is after yours anyway..." a weird expression flashed across her face at the last part but neither Asuna nor Setsuna noticed, mostly because Asuna was giggling at Setsuna's red face.

"Ko-ko-konoka-ojou sama is going to change with us!"

Setsuna was about to run away but before she could she was dragged back by a surprisingly strong Konoka, "Fufufu, it'll be like old times when we used to bath and change together right Se-chan?"

Asuna sweat dropped as she watched Konoka drag a squirming Setsuna to the changing rooms, "Eh... whatever."

The three of them walked, or rather two of them walked while the third was dragged, to the room where their battle uniforms were supposedly prepared. There they changed but made sure to keep the topic away from Naruto, sensing Konoka was in a funny mood when it came to the blonde.

Suddenly Konoka flung herself at Setsuna and Asuna, "Se-chan! Asuna-chan! Kawaii!"

"Huh?" the both of were startled by the sudden hug before looking down, "Gyah! Wha-what is this?" they had both been so preoccupied with joking that they hadn't noticed what they were dressed in.

Setsuna was dressed in a ninja maid uniform with a pair of neko mimis while Asuna was dressed in a frilly goth maid uniform complete with frilly underwear. Both of them looked at Konoka to find her gleefully dressed in a full maid outfit and cute white bonnet, unlike theirs her skirt was ankle length with long white stockings and while it was frilly, it wasn't as frilly as Asuna's.

"Gyah! We can't wear this out there! Hurry and change again!" Asuna frantically said as she tried to pull off her frilly top, but before she could someone slammed the door open, prompting a slight squeal of embarassment from the red haired girl.

"Hehehe, I wonder if they'll let us keep this uniform? We can be the three fighting maids of 3-A!"

Setsuna sweat dropped, "O-ojou sama... this is too embarrassing to wear into battle.

"No time for that! And our sponsor ordered you to wear them because you don't have special pull or titles like Takahata's 'Glasses of Death' or 'Last year's Champion'!" Asakura broke in, the next battle is about to start, Konoka, you have to come too!"

"Eh?"

Without a reply Kazumi pulled the three of them out in to the waiting area for contestants.

Setsuna and Asuna blushed deeply at the cheering they received from the crowd while Konoka waved cheerfully.

Asuna hid her face in her palms, "Oh God, what if Takahata-sensei sees me like this. I shouldn't have listened to blondie!"

"Fufufu, If you worry about things like that you won't get strong you know," a hand landed on her head and started ruffling her hair.

"Wha-what are you doing all of a sudden! Stop that!" pushing away the hand she looked up to see the hooded man that Naruto had been spending time with.

Setsuna and Konoka both tensed beside Asuna, this man had sneaked up on them without any of them even sensing his approach and they had no idea what his intentions were even if he didn't seem like he could hurt anybody.

"Yo-you!"

"Hmhmhm, me. Ah... every time I look at you I still can't believe it. The small girl that looked like a fragile doll has blossomed into a beautiful young woman that is surrounded by her friends and allies. That stoic little girl even knows love now, Gateau Kagura Vandenburg made the right choice in entrusting you to Takahata. I can see why Naruto would be interested in you."

"Gya! What the hell are you saying all of a sudden! Do I even know you?" Asunda demanded from the hooded man that seemed to be spacing out.

"Hmm? Oh right. Time is short so I only have a small bit of advice. Don't worry about anything, make yourself calm and empty, accepting of everything and anything. If it's you, you should be able to do it easily."

"Empty? Like Naruto's meditation? Wait, who are you and why are you even telling me this for?"

She saw a small smile form underneath that hood, "Who I am doesn't matter. As for why I'm telling you this... I'm simply giving you back something that was originally yours. As long as you can make yourself empty, focus the magic you receive from Negi into your left hand and your Ki in your right hand and combine both of them. If you can do that, you will be able to unlock the technique Takahata did earlier. The Kanka."

The hooded man tilted his head to the side, allowing a foot that was aimed at his head to miss, "Kii! What are you doing out here! Shouldn't you be stuck in a hole!"

"Evangeline, it is nice to meet you again."

"Screw that, what're you doing here with my students? Are you corrupting them with your otaku-ness?"

"Oh? I was under the impression they were Naruto's students."

"They're my students too! That idiot just gave them basic physical training! Anywa you didn't answer me! What are you doing here with Kagurazaka?"

"Oh? You don't know? Hmhmhm, how interesting. Then I'll keep it a secret just a little longer. Just to mess with you."

The girls watched the two bicker back and forth like a tennis match, Konoka nudged Asuna, "You know that man? He seemed to talk to you as if he already knew you."

Asuna gave her a troubled look, "I've never met him or felt his signature before. But that name he mentioned; Gatou something. It felt familiar for some reason."

"Hmm... Asuna, you're a mysterious girl aren't you? Hehehehe... more layers to peel away before I ravage you."

Smack!

"I-itai Asuna..."

"There's nothing to ravage!"

Before the two of them could continue their argument the hooded man brushed a fuming Evangeline off and turned back to Asuna, "Time is up. The tournament is starting again. Remember, make yourself blank. If you can do so, you will have enough power to protect those precious to you. So that you don't have to watch any one die in front of you again."

With those last ominous words the hooded man literally faded away.

The clearing was silent and the temperature felt like it was freezing.

"**Annnnd the stage's preparation is complete! But our organisers have a special surprise for this round, one of the contestants in this round has made a special request as well as added 5 million yen to the grand total prize and another 5 million yen for the winner of this round!"**

Konoka, Setsuna and Asuna who had both been stunned by the hooded man's sudden departure snapped from their musings at that announcement.

The murmuring of the crowd got a lot louder as they discussed what the special request was and why it was worth 10 million yen.

"**The contestant has requested for a 3 on 1 battle. Him alone against the three most beautiful and yet powerful girls of Mahora Academy. Naruto Namikaze, lone male student of 3-A, versus Asuna Kagurazaka, Setsuna Sakurazaki and Konoka Konoe, all three of them also off 3-A. And that's not all! He has also requested that any weapons and style of combat be allowed! Do you understand! Blades and even guns; eeeverything is allowed!"**

Predictably the crowd went berserk with excitement and anticipation as well as some nervousness at live weapons being used.

All three girls felt their jaw drop as they turned as one to look at the arena.

Standing on one side of the arena awaiting them was a lone figure. Even from here they could see the blonde who was dressed in a white plaid shirt, slacks and steel toed boots leaning on a wooden post with a smile on his face as his blonde locks blew in the wind.

"**This is the first time someone has been matched up against more than two opponents as well as the no weapon rule has been lifted in the 20 year history of this legendary Mahora Martial Arts Tournament! We're in for a treat!"**

Kazumi's words flew right over the three girls' ears, so focused were they on their upcoming opponent, "Di-did I hear that right? We're fighting against Naruto-sensei? All three of us?" Setsuna demanded.

"Tch, what is that idiot thinking off!"

"Fufufufu, foursome?"

Smack.

"Uguu... Asuna meanie."

"Sigh... Let's go. The crowd's going wild and the Tournament starts in 5 minutes. If we just stay here we'll be disqualified..."

The three maid uniform wearing girls shared a look before squaring their shoulders and simultaneously striding into the arena.

"**Woooo! And it looks like the girls are ready! The three battle maids of 3-A against the only male student, the mysterious Naruto Namikaze! Who will win!"**

"Remind me to kick Kazumi's ass later, she sounds waaay too happy." Asuna mumbled under her breath.

"Noted, I reserve her left cheek, you can have the right one." Setsuna agreed with gritted teeth in embarrassment at being labelled 'battle maid'. She assumed the announcer had heard Ojou-sama's comment and went with it.

Konoka didn't say anything, her attention was focused solely on the blonde waiting for them; a mixture of excitement, apprehension and questioning in her eyes.

Naruto eyed her back for a few moments before nodding in response.

Konoka smiled in satisfaction; they would talk after this was over.

"What are you doing idiot?" Asuna yelled at the blonde as they all gathered on the stage.

The blonde smiled response, "You've all been training under me for at least 2 months at the shortest. I thought this was a good time to have a test of how far you have all come."

"Test, Naruto-sensei?" Setsuna questioned quietly.

"Yes, show me how strong you have all become. But let me warn you, this isn't like our normal training." His face went cold, "Come with me with the intent to kill."

**Play Macross Frontier OST - Lion**

Pulling out a card in one swift movement he held it out in front of him, all three girls tensed as the blonde called out the activation command.

When the light dissipated they were treated to a different pactio then they expected. Instead of his standard red trench coat with its many horizontal straps across his chest, he was now in a blue trench coat, the only noticeable difference from the red trench coat was its straps. In place of the many straps there was now only two across his chest in an X pattern, from shoulder to hip while his slacks and boots hadn't changed.

The familiar mask hadn't changed.

Floating behind him were 6 crystals in a circle formation.

Setsuna silently noted that it was the exact same trench coat the person that Kaede fought was wearing yesterday at the preliminaries, which meant N.U was either a clone or Naruto after going back in time with Negi.

"**Oooh! After a few words that we couldn't hear, contestant Naruto has pulled out some special transformation move with 6 crystal like things! How will the girl's respond?"**

Konoka's mind raced at the new development before drawing a conclusion. She quietly spoke, "That's the pactio my father made with you isn't it?"

She got no reply other than a small nod.

"**START!"**

All 6 crystals immediately zigzagged away from Naruto who hadn't made a move. All three girls tensed but hesitated in attacking as the crystals floated around them in nearly spastic movements, simply moving into defensive stances with their weapons pulled out since they didn't know what the crystals were capable of doing.

Naruto seeing them hesitate flashed forward with one fist already cocked back.

Asuna eyes widened as the fist came down and blocked it with her harisen while Konoka and Setsuna leapt back, she grunted under the force of the attack but managed to push him back. A bead of sweat ran down her temple, Naruto wasn't holding back at all. Behind her Konoka pulled out her fans and prepared to attack from far when Setsuna moved in front of her, blocking her view of Naruto, "Konoka-ojou sama, stay behind me," Setsuna urged her princess.

As soon as she said that the crystals around them leapt into action, flying all around them and periodically flying forward to hit them physically from their blind spots.

Setsuna dodged under one crystal before batting another away, Konoka grumbled under her breath, with Setsuna sticking so close she couldn't attack with her fans.

Asuna ran forward after pushing Naruto back and swung her harisen down as hard as possible, intending on flattening Naruto, in response the blonde pulled out a small knife and parried her attack before launching a snap kick that Asuna dodged.

While Asuna was engaging Naruto physically, the crystals stopped attacking them and started floating in a zigzag pattern again; Setsuna decided to take the offensive against the crystals before they could attack again. She ran at the closest one but before she could reach it a bolt of lightning suddenly shot towards Konoka from behind her, skidding to a stop she turned, jumped into the attack's path and blocked the attack. "Setsuna! That crystal that attacked us broke, there's only 5 left." Konoka whispered at Setsuna.

"**What is this? Contestant Naruto has some sort of Gundam type bits that can attack without him visually commanding them! Is this some sort of engineering miracle like Tanaka?"**

The swords girl nodded before sheathing her nodachi, aiming to get rid of the rest of the crystals randomly attacking them without moving too far from her Princess, "Ougi : Zankuushou, san!" the attack unleashed a vacuum slash at a few crystals, hitting only one while the rest simply moved out of the way while a different crystal shot fire balls at them from behind. Konoka tackled Setsuna who was still in the Zankuushou, san position to dodge the fireballs before gasping; the fireballs were headed right for Asuna from behind.

Naruto pivoted under a side swipe before following the momentum from his pivot to crouch and sweep Asuna's legs out from under her before kicking her right towards the fireballs.

Asuna closed her eyes and expanded her presence slightly, she was still singed but it was enough to lessen the damage, gasping as she fell to her knees and panted slightly, matching Naruto blow for blow was incredibly draining plus she still couldn't use her anti magic abilities through reflex, requiring a moment of concentration for it to move beyond her skin. As she stayed there panting for awhile a voice spoke in her head, _'Remember Asuna. Emptiness.'_

"Geh! Dont speak to me in my head like that? And who ar- wait that voice, you're that hooded guy!"

Before she could say anything more, the blonde had charged past her towards where Setsuna was defending Konoka from elemental blasts from multiple angles.

'_If you don't follow my directions, Naruto will hurt your friends you know?'_

She immediately looked at where Konoka was being attacked furiously, "Grrr! Whatever! I'll do it later." She ran at Naruto to stop the blonde from focusing on their long range support.

****** With Negi ******

"Whoa! Negi, did you know that Kinpatsuu had something like this?"

The boy shook his head in reply, "I've never seen him using anything like this before. He never even told me he had a second Pactio."

"Hmph, it's that stupid ninja habit of his again. He doesn't like showing his trump cards unless necessary or when he's sure there won't be any adverse side effects." A voice joined their conversation.

"Evangeline-sensei!"

The vampire glanced at him briefly before looking back at the stage, "What is it bouya?"

"You know what those things are?"

The vampire shrugged, "Simply put they are independent remote extensions capable of using any long range elemental offensive attack. As far as I can tell, the attacks are limited to those in his arsenal that are below B-rank but the crystals themselves don't require any chants or delay whatsoever to cast the spells. But they're only one use. Each time one crystal attacks with a spell, it breaks. That's all I know. I never managed to see more than that... or more accurately I never got past the sixth crystal before he trapped me in something stupid, I mean, who the hell uses ketchup in a fight?" she mumbled the last part so Negi, Kotarou and Chisame didn't hear. Chachamaru suppressed the urge to grin at her Master quietly. That was one picture she would always treasure.

****** With Naruto *******

Setsuna slashed the last crystal into pieces before glancing around to see Naruto bearing down on Konoka who was evading his attacks as best as possible, but it was obvious she was slowly being cornered since Naruto didn't seem to be holding back judging by the fact that every time he missed Konoka, his fists would leave great craters in the floor with a resounding crash.

"Now, Asuna! All his crystals are gone! Attack him together!"

Konoka shakily leapt back, avoiding another punch that slammed into the floor with enough force to rival the canon blasts that Takahata-sensei had made earlier, looking up she saw Asuna and Setsuna leaping up behind Naruto; _nodachi_ and _harisen_ poised to deliver a blow. Taking the initiative she summoned her own fans and simultaneously blew the strongest attack she could muster at Naruto.

A split second before all the attacks hit, Naruto spun around and another 6 crystals reappeared out of nowhere before aligning around him in a defensive circle in a split second and firing powerful blasts of fire in all 6 directions, the one facing Konoka fired a blast of water to overwhelm her fire one.

All three of them were thrown away by the attacks, "Gyahh!"

All three landed roughly on their backs on a different corner.

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Gattai Nante Kuso Kurae**

6 crystals shattered before being reformed again, circling behind Naruto in a manner reminiscent of a peacock's feathers.

'_That was a good move. Waiting for the crystals to finish, but I didn't say I couldn't replenish them_.' The blonde's voice echoed in each of their heads. A quick glance between all them told them that they all heard the same thing_. 'Don't worry; I'm using an item Chamo gave me to broadcast my thoughts to you similar to mages' telepathy. It isn't very secure since anybody in the item's range with magic can listen in but I don't plan on revealing state secrets anyway. I simply don't want those without magic to hear what we're talking about.'_

Asuna groaned as she struggled to her knees, she could see Konoka and Setsuna do the same in another two corners of the arena.

'_Do you see your mistakes yet?'_

When no reply was forthcoming he continued_, 'Your teamwork is good. Make no mistake about it, but like glass, when pressure is added; your teamwork breaks. Setsuna is too focused on protecting Konoka, leaving Asuna alone to battle on the front lines. As strong as she maybe, she cannot fight alone against a superior opponent without support. Konoka, shielded by Setsuna has a hard time using her fan because they require space to move in, effectively rendering her a mere observer. It's not necessarily a bad thing to protect your princess, but do you have so little faith in her, Setsuna? Even after how hard she trained just so she could fight beside you?'_

Setsuna grunted and gazed at Konoka.

Konoka gazed back with determined eyes.

Setsuna lowered her eyes, whether in shame or thought, they never knew but when she looked up again, her face was set in a grimace, "Grrr... I don't like it! I don't like it at all! But I'll do it! Asuna!"

Asuna grunted in reply and looked at her palms. She needed more strength...

Alright let's see if what that guy said was true, the red headed girl breathed deeply and focused Negi's magic in her left palm before circulating Ki in her right, breathing out, she pushed both palms together and was immediately surrounded by a glowing aura with a thunderclap.

"A-asuna! You did it!"

"Alright! Get ready Setsuna! Konoka! We're going to beat this idiot into the ground."

Asuna leapt high up into the sky, boosted by her Kanka while Setsuna charged in from a low position while Konoka immediately started to support them, blowing gale speed winds and intense fire to occupy the crystals and generally distracting Naruto from effectively countering Setsuna who had dashed in and out of Naruto's range, swinging her nodachi and a tanto in a blazing combo to stop him from attacking the airborne Asuna.

"Orryaaa! Setsuna get clear! _Ougi : Zanganken_!"

Setsuna leapt back and threw her tanto at Naruto so that he wouldn't dodge Asuna's attack.

The red haired girl slammed her harisen straight onto Naruto, his knives shattering completely under the force of the blow before he was slammed so hard into the boards that they shattered and Naruto plummeted into the water below the stage.

Asuna leapt back from the hole.

"**Ah! Contestant Naruto fell into the water after receiving a direct, devastating blow! IS HE OK?"**

A dripping wet Naruto that jumped back out of the hole after a few tense moments answered that questions.

All three girls got the feeling he was smiling proudly at them from behind the mask.

"Tch, Takahata-sensei was right. His head _is _damned hard; I think my _harisen_ got dented.

"Fufufufu, it doesn't matter. We're not giving up right, Se-chan? Asuna-chan?"

"Damn right, let's beat him down until he can't get back up."

"A-asuna... you're getting violent again..."

All three girls charged the silent blonde again.

******With Negi******

"Wha-what? How can she do that? Even Takahata took years to achieve control of Kanka to that lev-!" Evangeline yelled.

"Fufufu, why indeed. Takahata worked very hard to reach a level where he could activate and use Kanka with just a thought, even most normal mages have to train for at least 3 years to do it but Asuna-san is a rather special case." A voice interrupted her.

"Albi-"

"Call me KuNel Sanders here please,"

"Whatever! What do you mean by '_special case'_?"

"Hmhmhm, if you want to know so badly... why don't we make a bet? Or would you rather just watch and never find out?"

"Grrrrr..." her fingers itched to kill the hooded man, "Fine! What bet?"

A glint appeared in his eyes under the hood before Albiero pulled a swimsuit out of nowhere, "If Asuna-san looses this match; against the other two girls and Naruto, I'll tell you. If she wins instead, you'll wear this traditional swimsuit. Hehehe..."

Evangeline blanched, "Wha-what? You can't make me do that!"

Albiero shrugged, "Up to you. I'm completely fine with taking this information with me to the grave."

"Grrrr! I'll take it." The vampire growled out.

"Fufufufu, very brave of you, as expected of the Great Mage Queen."

The both of them silently watched the three girls and Naruto dance around each other, exchanging powerful blow after blows. The stage started resembling the surface of the moon with the amount of craters on it.

After a moment Albiero spoke again, "What say we make this a little more interesting?"

Evangeline glanced at the hooded man warily, "What is it?"

The glint in his eyes grew even more pronounced as he pulled even more stuff out of hammerspace, "Same conditions but let's take it a little further. If I win, you wear this swimsuit, sailor uniform, glasses and cat ears during your next match. If I win I'll share some information about the Thousand Master with you."

"Woots! Go hooded stranger! Mizugi! Sailor Fuku! Megane! Neko mimi and Loli fetish all rolled into one! You've got style!"

Evangeline's automatically shot out and grabbed the ermine, froze him completely and threw him straight into the water, "Ku... Thousand Master... Nagi..." Albiero quirked an eyebrow at the almost unnoticed reflex, he hadn't known that she had gotten some of her power back.

"I see... if you are unsure let's remain on the original bet. I'm sure you don't care about Nagi anyway."

"N-no! I'll take the bet!"

"Very well." Albiero smiled eerily.

Sudden a large flare of power distracted both of them.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto threw Asuna straight at a charging Setsuna before he was hit from behind by a large fireball. It failed to burn his trench coat but he was slightly singed from the powerful attack. Turning his attention to Konoka he ran towards the princess and tried to hit her, only for Konoka to switch fans, elegantly evade his punch and draw the edge of her fans along his arm, leaving a bloody furrow.

"Ojou-sama!" Setsuna attacked Naruto from behind but before Naruto could deflect her attacks, Asuna slammed her fan into the ground with earth shaking force, destabilizing him enough for Setsuna to land a two handed blow that cut he barely blocked with another knife before the strongest of the three grabbed his leg and slammed him repeatedly into the ground while Konoka danced around his body, cutting him again and again.

"Gwah! Enough! Shinra Tensei!"

All three girls were blown back roughly and slammed into the ground from the force of Naruto's attack before his crystals let loose a barrage of lightning strikes that hit all of them, "Kyaaah!"

Naruto panted for a moment and deactivated his Rinnegan before charging at Konoka again, out of the three, her attacks did the least damage but they were also the most distracting

Konoka's hand trembled from the lightning but she forced herself to roll away as Naruto landed punch after punch on the abused floor, two clones split from his body to deal with Asuna and Setsuna. This time they hit really hard.

'_This is not enough. The three of you managed to overcome the problems in your teamwork but you are still lacking.'_

"Lacking what!" Asuna yelled as she dodged a blow.

'_So far the three of you have done very well, but you still hesitate. You do not put your full power into your attacks. What will you do if you hesitate? What will you do if that hesitation causes someone to die? Will you hesitate when you are fighting someone more powerful than you, someone who you can only defeat with your most powerful and lethal attacks? Someone who won't stop until he has hurt everything and everyone you care for? Put everything into your attacks, don't hold back, don't retreat, don't hesitate, STOP HOLDING BACK and DEFEAT ME!'_

"Bu-but we can't hurt you!" Setsuna shouted, in response the clone she was fighting slipped through her guard and punched her in the gut hard enough for her to cough blood.

"Setsuna!"

'_If you cannot bring yourself to hurt me, then all of you will get hurt instead!'_

As if to punctuate, the blonde's speed immediately doubled and before they knew it he had already kicked Setsuna high into the sky where she was immediately surrounded by two of his six crystals which proceeded to electrify her. Naruto himself hadn't stopped, suddenly appearing in front of Asuna he swung his leg in a powerful side kick, even blocking it with her _harisen_ proved useless as the force completely threw the red headed girl out of the arena.

**Play Xenosaga 3 OST – Fatal Fight**

Asuna growled as she climbed out of the water, if he wanted more powerful, he would **get** more powerful.

She started to pull even more power from her _Kanka._

Time slowed as she felt her heart beating even faster the more she forced more power out.

Her brain pounded before something felt like it was stabbing her heart.

She ignored the pain, she needed more power!

Something snapped and images long forgotten flashed in her mind as her hand clutched her chest.

All three of the others stared at Asuna in shock as her aura skyrocketed and her _harisen_ suddenly shifted forms into a blade as big as Naruto's, "Wha-what is this? Is she really going to do something lethal?"

"No... Something is wrong." Setsuna and Konoka glanced at the blonde, even though they couldn't see his face, they could practically hear the frown in his words.

"**Wha-what is happening? Contestant Asuna is attacking her team mates!"**

Naruto glanced at Kazumi and the audience; this wasn't going to be good.

"Argggh!" Asuna roared and charged at the nearest person, Setsuna, "Wha? Asuna! Snap out of it!"

Asuna flashed forward with incredible speed and slashed at Setsuna who barely blocked the attack with her _nodachi_, but the force of the attack still forced her to her knees and her muscles were still spasming from the lightning attack she had received earlier, "Kuu... Asuna! What are you doing?" Setsuna looked up into Asuna's face and saw that her eyes were blank and emotionless but despite that, tears were dripping from them.

Asuna kicked Setsuna away violently before moving on the next target, Konoka.

Konoka's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen, but it was too late as Asuna appeared in front of her with the great sword already mid slash. Konoka deflected the sword with her fans, if she tried to block it, she would've have broken something, but Asuna simply twirled the large sword with ease and flicked both Konoka's fans away from her. Konoka scrunched her eyes shut as the sword moved at her with extreme speeds, intent on cutting her in half.

A few silent moments passed yet she didn't feel any pain, the only sound she could hear was the sound of her blood rushing and heart pounding. Wondering what was happening she carefully opened one eye to see the masked blonde behind Asuna, one arm restraining Asuna around her waist and the other hand gripped Asuna's wrist, just barely holding the sword back from Konoka's neck, "Kuu...Konoka! Get away!"

Konoka gulped, she could see that Naruto was having a hard time stopping the blow if the muscles flexing his arm was any indication, staggering back she fell into Setsuna's arms, "Se-se-chan..."

"It-it's ok Ojou-sama, you're safe."

Meanwhile Naruto slammed Asuna into the ground before hurriedly straddling the struggling girl. Pinning her flailing arms to the ground he urgently whispered into Asuna's ear, "Asuna, come back to me; to us." He ignored a punch that cracked his mask and a knee that cracked his ribs, "This isn't you. Don't let this power control you, control it instead! Remember what I said! Power without will is just violence, but if you subdue that power with your will it will become your strength! Don't let it hurt your friends. Come back Asuna Kagurazaka!"

Asuna's body slackened in his arms, "Na-naruto? Wha-what am I doing? Wh-why are you so close to me?"

Giving a quick laugh of relief the blonde got off the red headed girl.

'_Although unplanned that was a good example of what I wanted to show the three of you. Sometimes you will find someone, an enemy or someone with any number of reasons, has his own goals to achieve that you are blocking in one way or another and he won't give up. Someone that will take advantage of your hesitance to hurt him and use it to defeat you. Then he will go on to hurt that which is important to you.'_

Struggling to his feet with the aid of his sword, Naruto continued to speak into their thoughts, _'There are two lessons here. I don't want you to kill anybody. But sometimes, against someone like that, where holding back equals defeat, you will need to use a powerful attack that will almost always be lethal to the target or you will draw more power than you can safely handle to fight back. More often than not, that usually results in the power going berserk and you will lose control like Asuna just did."_

Said girl looked at her shoes in shame but Naruto just patted her back. She gave him a watery smile in return and he continued,_ "So what can you do? You slowly practice using that kind of power and bring it under your control. At the same time, I don't want you to kill anybody because you were using possibly lethal skills, killing may sometimes be inevitable, but if something forces you to that extreme, I wanted it to be under your own terms, not an accident. So I wanted to be your target today, as someone who is trying to hurt your friends, in an environment where you couldn't retreat, somewhere you had no choice but to take me seriously instead of at training. Practice using them, then when the time comes, you can let yourself go and attack but remain in control enough that you don't kill anybody by accident, be it a passerby or your target.'_

_'Now let us finish this match. This time don't hesitate. Attack me as I attack you with the intent to kill. STOP HOLDING BACK AND COME AT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!'_

Naruto jumped up and swung the sword it downwards, slamming it right in between the three girls with a roar. All three of them scattered as the spot they were previously in buckled and shattered while his crystals repeatedly attacked them from their blind spots. They didn't like it, but he was right. Sometimes they couldn't hesitate but they would learn. They wouldn't hold back but they won't kill anybody either.

Asuna desperately dodged a fire dragon and leapt forward, swiping her fan furiously at the blonde to keep him off balance to cover for the rest of her team. Surprisingly her harisen held its own against his furious attacks as they clashed against his sword again and again, each clash bringing showers of sparks around them.

"Adeat!"

As soon as she heard that, Asuna twisted her harisen and flicked Naruto's sword away in the same manoeuvre she had used against Konoka before allowing herself to get kicked away.

Sixteen knives surrounded Setsuna before they all flew forwards, 6 of them skewering Naruto's crystals while the other 10 dashed around Naruto, cutting him slightly all over his body while another two stabbed into his arms so that he had no chance of fighting back, using Asuna's retreat as an opening, Setsuna dashed forward from Naruto's blind spot as her nodachi started to glow, "_Ougi : Kyokudai RaimeiKen!"_

The blonde deflected the slash with a small knife by the smallest margins but a great thunder strike still managed to hit him with enough force to violently throw his limp body into the air.

Asuna gripped her harisen tighter, it had changed back after Naruto brought her back from her berserker fury, leaping up into the air above Naruto's prone figure, she brought it up high and slammed it down onto Naruto with everything she could muster, _"Ougi : Zanganken!"_

Naruto fell like a comet and crashed into the water with a huge splash. Asuna landed beside Konoka who was chanting a long spell. Behind her six huge orbs glowed in a circle pattern.

When the water spray receded to show a Naruto that was clutching his ribs, Konoka didn't hesitate to let loose a barrage of 6 powerful spells that twisted around each other into one potent roaring beam.

In a last ditch effort Naruto summoned his crystals and like Konoka they fired at her attack simultaneously. The two powerful attacks clashed for scant seconds before Naruto's attack was completely overpowered. The three girls saw him flash them a thumbs up before the attack hit.

**Play Gundam Seed Destiny OST - Kimi Wa Boku Niteiru**

The beam slammed into Naruto and the subsequent explosion rocked the entire arena and everyone watching the match instinctively shut their eyes as a bright light exploded.

Miraculously no one was hurt except for a slight tremor, the majority of the explosion was contained within some sort of barrier. For a few tense seconds all of three them forgot to breathe, nervously waiting for the cloud of water, steam and dust to settle.

Soon the cloud settled enough for all them to see a silhouette that was still standing. All three of them tensed again and prepared their wand and weapon.

A gasp escaped Konoka's lips as she dropped her wand and ran forward.

Setsuna and Asuna both felt their breaths hitch as they finally saw Naruto, loud and similar gasps ran around the audience as Kazumi started shouting for an ambulance, but they didn't hear anything as all their attention was focused on their martial arts teacher.

It didn't take long before gasps turned into screams.

The blonde smiled at the three of them and mouthed something at them before toppling over backwards into the water but before he could be completely submerged Konoka landed beside him and pulled him out of the water with strength she didn't know she had.

'_That's it for today's lessons. Good Job.' _

"Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry." Konoka kept muttering under her breath as blood stained her maid uniform. Evangeline and Chachamaru landed beside her, "Is the idiot ok?" she asked worriedly while staring at deep wound while Chachamaru immediately started wrapping Naruto's wound with bandages.

Akako whimpered from Chachamaru's shoulder, "Pa...pa, papa... ok?" she quietly squeaked and rubbed her tears away on Chachamaru's coat.

The blonde's mask had shattered in half, leaving another half that was cracked badly on his face, his trench coat was in tatters, showing a burnt chest.

His entire left arm was missing.

Albiero and Negi landed beside them, "Nii-san!"

"Come on, we have to get him somewhere where we can heal him."

"Use my resort! The ambient magic should help!"

"Alright; Evangeline, you'll stay here, we need damage control and you have your match next." Albiero's voice was calm but there was a hint of panic in it.

"What! I can't think about my match now!"

"Don't worry, it's not life threatening. He'll be fine after a few days rest."

"Fine! He's missing his freaking arm just because the stubborn idiot wanted to make a point about too much power and responsibility!" Evangeline hotly yelled while a very pale Asuna and Setsuna unsteadily made their way towards them.

"Don't worry; we can regenerate it with magic. I sensed that Naruto erected a barrier before the match; it should have stopped everyone who doesn't know magic from remembering exactly what happened or magic being used since I taught it to him myself; they'll know something flashy happened but they won't remember the specifics. Nonetheless it failed after he was hit since its power requirement was too high and it wasn't meant to block an explosion of that level, so they'll have seen him loose his arm but not the events that led up to it. We need someone competent to do damage control and I don't think anyone else is up to it at the moment." He gestured at all the pale girls and the very pale Negi. "Can you do it Evangeline? For Naruto?"

"Grrr! Just get him healed so I can take him apart myself!"

All of them flashed away, including Asuna, Chachamaru and Setsuna as Albiero teleported them to Evangeline's cottage.

Evangeline turned around and looked around to see thousands of eyes focused on her, she flushed a little but squared her shoulders and discreetly casted a _'trust me' _charm on everybody present, "I'm sorry for the disturbance but that was a special episode the engineering department prepared for your viewing. We wanted to see if we could simulate blood real enough with different fluids. Ketchup just doesn't cut it anymore nowadays." She gave a strained laugh as she heard murmurs of agreement, "Our actor was still hurt in the process but it was just a slight wound. Please enjoy the rest of the matches."

As laughs of relief started to spread around the stands and Kazumi wailed about there being no winner in this round, Evangeline breathed out a similar sigh of relief, her bet with Albiero completely forgotten.

"**Well it looks like we panicked for nothing! But still, what an upset victory! Contestant Naruto seemed badly hurt when all three girls hit him once together! Some sort of secret technique that can only be used by three girls dressed in skimpy uniforms? Well at least now we know it was just a illusion and CG."**

"It'll be ok Master..."

She smiled slightly at Chachazero. "Yeah, if anything Albiero is one of the best healers I know. He's the only reason everyone in Ala Rubra didn't die in the first ten minutes it was established."

"**Alright! Even if there aren't any winners to that spectacularly flashy fight, everyone had fun right! Now we prepare for the next fight, we seem to be repairing the arena very often don't we? Well anyway, just as a reminder; for the next fight we have 3****rd**** Dan Jujutsu User, Yamashita Keiichi against Evangeline Mc Dowell, gothic lolita of 3-A! And as a bonus, the winner of this round will automatically advance to the quarterfinals!"**

Evangeline grunted, "Perfect. Hurry and fix the damn arena. I need to let some steam off before I dump the _**rest **_**OF IT OFF ON THAT IDIOT**." She was yelling by the end of her sentence as her aura burned around her. On the other side of the arena, also waiting for it to get fixed, a messy haired Keiichi felt shivers run down his back.

******Broken Faith******

"Chizuru-nee san? You alright? Why are you shaking like that?"

The tall girl in a elegant chinese cheongsam gave her roommate a shaky smile, "I'm alright Natsumi. I just don't feel well at the moment." She could hear the wood of the stand's rails crack under her grip, she fantasized it was a certain someone's neck in her fingers.

"Eh? You're worried about Naruto-san? But they said it was just a slight wound right? But the animation was sure good, it looked sooo real. I wonder if it's for a horror house or something."

"Yeah, it must've been something like that; it's just a slight wound after all. Don't worry about me, I really just don't feel well."

******Broken Faith******

Chisame was sitting stock still, frozen like stone as she stared at the laptop in front of her. Something was seriously wrong. Even though her mind said different and she believed that blonde girl from their class, for some reason the screen on her laptop was showing her something else entirely.

Still images of the match were going online at an incredible rate. Negi's match with Takahata, the wolf boy's match with the shy red haired girl, Kaede's match with the guy in blue, Takane getting naked, her blonde classmate's match with three girls, which also included said blonde classmate having his arm blasted off. That wasn't engineering liquid or ketchup no matter _what __**anyone **_said. She struggled to have the two parts of her reasoning meld together but didn't seem to be making any headway so her body continued to stare at the laptop in stony silence.

******Broken Faith******

Mana tapped her rifle impatiently as a tic played on her jaw. She wanted to shoot badly right now. She'd even settle for shooting civilians but she would prefer her target being something blonde and stupid. Especially the stupid part.

******Broken Faith******

Chao grunted in worry as she tapped a pattern in her desk hard enough to leave slight dents in the wood, Naruto-jiji never said anything like this happening. She knew he would be ok, but it didn't help soothe the burning in her chest knowing that her agreement to his stupid idea was what brought this about. Even worse, she knew the recordings of the matches were set to go online and were probably already circulating the internet, and she couldn't stop it since it was already pre-programmed. She was benefiting from her grandfather's injuries. Damn. Damn. Damn. This wasn't honourable.

******Broken Faith******

The entire class of 3-A watched the laptop silently. Scant minutes ago they had been cheering for Negi-sensei against Takahata-sensei. Then a still image of a smiling Naruto right before being hit by a huge beam of some sort, the next image didn't make it any better...

A shaky voice broke the silence, "Th-that's just a joke right?"

Everyone turned to see Ayaka trembling as she pointed on shaky finger at the monitor.

"No! Naruto-sensei isn't that easy to take down! Makie yelled before running out of the classroom with a slam.

"Naruto-sensei? Does Maki-chan know him or something?"

******Broken Faith******

"Hmm... I wonder if that blonde is alright. He was an interesting guy."

Decimo glanced at the man who had spoken, "I didn't know you spoke to him."

"I didn't, but he had an interesting aura to the EXTREME!"

Someone smacked the man with frizzy gray hair, "Stop yelling indoors lawn head!"

"Anata? Can we go visit him? He looks like he's hurt badly. And no one else wants to talk to me about ramen here..."

"I guess. He still owes me for that bottle of wine." Decimo glanced to the side where something could be heard snuffling, "And I 'm going to **make **him to get rid of that _poodle_... by force if I have to."

******Broken Faith******

**AN **

**Kukukukuku =)**

**M enough for you? Dark enough? Not yet? If so feel free to check yourself into a mental hospital.**

**Hands up, how many of you thought the four way battle was **_**just **_**going to be a standard shounen fight where Naruto preached the virtues of teamwork?**

**Anyway, two really long fights this chapter. The next chapter isn't much better. Wait no, I was lying, it's a lot better. Hehehehe... Resolution to the Konoka problem plus Naruto vs Albiero. *****Giggles madly***

**Oh btw, some have questioned what I meant by the reference to Shinji in the last chapter. Google Shinji Matou, but you won't really get it unless you played Fate/Stay Night or Fate/Extra. Although I can't really blame some people I suppose, the sheer intricacy and overarching plot in the whole series / multiple dimensions, is rather intimidating and that puts some people off. The only advice I can give people when they plan on understanding Fate/Stay Night and the bucket loads of references from other canon works is to carry panadol with them while they surf the net. **

**A lot of panadol. **

******Broken Faith******

**Konoka's dress in battle – goggle Fubuki of Kamen no Maid Guy**

**Raika Houken – Crushing Fist of Majestic Lightning**

**Raika Houken : Nii-gata – Crushing Fists of Majestic Lightning : Second Opening**

**Ougi : Zankuushou, san – Hidden Move : Cleaving Air Palm, Scatter**

**Ougi : Zanganken - Hidden Move : Stone Cleaving Slash**

**Ougi : Kyokudai RaimeiKen - Hidden Move : Greatest Crying Thunder God Sword**


	20. Because It's Interesting

**Broken Faith 20**

**Because It's Interesting**

**Disclaimer : Don't own anything, Don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Don't own Negima, it belongs to Ken Akamatsu. **

**How many of you felt the urge to bang your laptops or hit something after the last chapter like Shirabaka Tenji? Lol.**

**Ailestrikehero : What in god's name gave you the idea that Naruto is fighting Rakan?**

**Oh and anybody else have a problem with logging onto the site? This was supposed to come out on the tenth of February, exactly two weeks after the previous chapter but I couldn't log on to post this for the longest time.**

**Soundtrack list**

Yuki Kajiura – Hear our prayer

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto OST – Kouya Ruten

AKINO – Go Tight

Macross Frontier OST – Northern Cross

******Broken Faith******

Evangeline looked up from the lump of flesh that used to be a competent jujutsu user. She had barely given him any attention while beating him up instead of the quick and clean win she had been planning to do; every other bit of her awareness was being used to sense when one of those who had gone to her cottage would come back.

Looking up at the contestant seats she saw the hooded figure waiting for her with nothing but a casual wave. Stomping on the lump of flesh one last time, she composed herself as much as possible, ignored the declarations of her overwhelming victory and hurried off the stage to talk the man, "What happened? Why are you here so fast?" she hissed under her breath.

"He is fine." Albiero shook his head in exasperation, "Before I could do anything for him, the idiot already regenerated his arm on his own shortly after he woke up. The reason he fell unconscious was because of the barrier. I mentioned before the power requirements were high didn't I? What I meant was that even I cannot hold that barrier up for longer than an hour. It's that high. The fact that it was up from the start of the match and that he used it to contain the blast, even though it wasn't meant to be used that way didn't help things either. The shock of having so much of his reserves drained in a split second caused him to faint for a while."

Evangeline looked the hooded man weirdly, "He regenerated his arm? The hell is he? A lizard?"

Albiero shrugged in amusement, "I don't know, the moment I got him in a secure room to heal him, he snapped up as if he was just having an afternoon snooze, a red aura surrounded his arm and poof. New arm. I didn't know he was part demon though..."

"He isn't. You'll have to ask him for specifics. Where is that idiot anyway?"

"Figuratively? Being ass raped by 4 girls and a fox. Literally? The red headed one tried to break his legs after they found out he was completely ok, the others didn't seem to disagree, in fact I think the one with the sword was helping while the other two were about to start a fire to see if he was fire proof as well."

"Good. They'll keep him warm until I can get my hands on him."

"Anyway, it's your match next.

"Ah... It's the quarterfinals already isn't it? I almost forgot in all the excitement."

Evangeline chewed lightly on her nails deep in thought, "Hmm... For Bracket B, you will have to fight with the wolf boy. The winner goes on to fight the one that's probably the idiot's clone. In my bracket... it's the bouya against the blonde girl. The winner goes against me. Tch, I was hoping I could fight against more worthy people before I forfeit but the match ups were bad."

"Oh? Forfeit? May I ask why?"

Evangeline snorted, "There's really no point. Despite the blonde girl being stronger than most mages, Negi is simply on whole other level but he can't beat me and this is not the right stage for our fight, not to mention I don't feel like letting uneducated people watch our fight. As for the idiot, since he doesn't want us to use any spells or flashy stuff there is no point in fighting him while both of us are handicapped. Plus I really doubt this place will survive even if only use our physical abilities." Evangeline stated candidly.

"I see..."

A bell started tolling breaking the silence between the two of them, "Ah, it's my turn. I'll try to prolong the match as much as I can so that I can hopefully fight against the real Naruto and buy time for Negi to get back here in time for his own match. You should take the time to go talk to him as well but try to come back in half an hour."

Evangeline watched the robed man sedately walk down the steps before picking up her doll and quietly fading away.

******Broken Faith*****

**A few minutes earlier**

Albiero faded back into sight with 4 somewhat pale girls, a pale boy and a whimpering fox holding on to him while the blonde was floating in the air in front of him.

Together they all rushed into the house, all of the girls couldn't believe how surreal the situation was while Negi was simply worried for his brother. They were chasing after a man with a bleeding, floating body in front of him. Chachamaru ran ahead of them, unlocking the way for them into the resort without a word. Once inside Albiero hurried with the blonde into the nearest room and floated the body onto a bed while the others quietly trooped inside and silently stayed in a corner of the room so they didn't disturb the healing process. Rolling up his sleeves he prepared to start by regenerating Naruto's arm, he hoped the wound hadn't closed yet, otherwise there would be problems reconnecting the severed nerves. Just before he could start healing, the blonde stirred and yawned.

"A-Al? What happened? Ugh..."

"Stop moving and relax Naruto. You're hurt and you lost your arm. I'm going to regenerate it for you. It'll take a few days for you to get used to it again but at least you won't be crippled."

The blonde held up his one good hand to stop him, "Don't bother,"

Everyone in the room was about to yell at him in protest but stopped when with a grunt the blonde was surrounded in a familiar red aura. The aura slowly crawled from his entire body to centre around the stump on his shoulder. The blonde grimaced in slight pain before giving a muted roar when a wet cracking sound drew everyone's attention to what used to be his arm.

They all watched in fascination and slight horror as the red aura flowed out and seemed to form an ethereal arm before slowly transforming into bone and muscle. More than one gulp could be heard during the process as the entire arm slowly reformed out of nothing but his youki. Konoka slapped her hand to her mouth to stop herself from puking at the scene. The looks on the rest showed that they weren't far from that stage either.

With a final squelching sound, the red aura receded into his body and the blonde flexed his new arm and gave a strained grin as he watched his muscles' movements for any deficiencies, "No matter how many times that happens, I never really get used to the feeling I get when I regrow something."

Looking around he pulled the bed sheet off the mattress before using it to casually wipe off some remaining blood stains on his new arm, "So what happened to the match? I expected to get hurt in that match, but I didn't think I would've fainted though. That barrier of yours is pretty crazy." He asked the robed man casually, as if nothing had happened and he had just woke up from a nap.

"It's your own fault for using it to stop that explosion." The robed man answered evenly, "As for the match, why don't you ask these lovely ladies with us?"

"Lovely ladies?"

A menacing aura started to fill the room, causing Naruto to look around and see something he had missed earlier.

"Oh those lovely ladies... Crap..."

Crap was right as all four girls were watching him with various expressions of anger on their faces; even Akako seemed to be bristling, their hair shadowed their eyes as a dark aura started to spread out from their corner as Negi slowly edged away from them, "So nice of you to finally notice us... I mean just because you lost an arm and fainting because of us is nothing important right? Then we find out we got scared and were worried for nothing because you can regrow your arm just like that...? Let's see if you can regrow other body parts, right girls?" Konoka growled out as she cracked her knuckles.

Setsuna brought out a whetstone and started to sharpen her blade while Asuna's _harisen_ suddenly morphed into a giant blade again, a loud clicking sound alerted Naruto to the fact that Chachamaru had a very big gun aimed at him.

Albiero turned and casually walked to the door, "Hmhmhmhm, I'll leave you to settle this lover's quarrel with them. Don't take too long and don't do anything I wouldn't. Oh and girls? Since we know he can regrow stuff easily, try not to kill him permanently. I'm pretty sure Evangeline wants to do that herself."

"Al? **AL**? C'mon man! You don't abandon a comrade like that! Negi! Why are you just saluting me? Do something! More importantly, SAVE ME! Gyah! Akako stop biting me!"

"Good girl, Akako. Now let's see if he can do that growing thingy with a leg..."

**CCCRACCCCCK**

"**Gwoooh! My Kneee! MY KNEE! IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BEND THAT WAY!"**

******Minutes later******

A heavily bandaged Naruto tenderly nursed a lump on his head with a pout on his face, "Ok, I get I was wrong, I shouldn't have pushed all of you so far but really, did you have to try and break my limbs to prove a point? I'm hurt even worse than I was after that match."

Chachamaru looked him blankly, "Do you want us to finish the job we started and just cut them off instead of breaking them? You can grow them back so there's nothing to be worried about right?" there was a hint of something in her monotone that clued Naruto into the fact that he was on very thin ice.

"No, no, no, that's alright dear, I'm sorry. It's all my fault. Don't hurt me anymore. Please?"' he tried to placate her.

"Ahaha... Nii-san..."

Naruto discreetly glared at him and mouthed the word traitor at him and mimicked throttling something with his fingers.

Meanwhile Konoka huffed indignantly before Asuna smacked Naruto's lump again, "So? Why did you feel the need to push us that far and scare all of us?"

Naruto scratched his head and sighed, "Perhaps I went a little too far, but more or less I wanted to make you guys realise that these powers you have; magic, ki etc etc. All these things seem fantastical to all you at first, Setsuna probably already knows this since she was brought up in the magical world but I know you and Asuna felt that way at first and Negi probably hasn't been in serious enough battles where one's life is at risk but it doesn't change the fact that these powers are real. They can really hurt someone. Especially someone normal. Like say Konoka's last attack, because she didn't know how to put in the proper amount of magic in her attack or properly use spells of that level, the explosion was rather excessive, what would have happened if I hadn't had that barrier up? Someone in the audience would have been hurt."

Konoka looked down in shame, she had totally forgotten about that, too lost in the moment was she.

Naruto patted her head to comfort her, "It's alright; it was more or less my fault for pushing you guys that far anyway. Point was I wanted you guys to realize that the powers you have, all of you," He looked at Negi, Asuna and Setsuna, "They can **hurt** people. Especially if you can't control them and when you need more power than you usually do, so that match was a controlled example so to speak. Although, that blast was more powerful than expected." He winked conspiratorially at the blushing black haired girl.

The blonde gave a lopsided smile and shrugged, "In the end, it's a bit complicated; you have these abnormal powers, but that means you have to take responsibility for what you do with that power. On one hand, if you hold back, there won't be much of a chance of hurting somebody but once you get pushed into a situation where you can't hold back anymore, you might try to do something you're not used to and lose control and involve innocent bystanders. I don't want you guys to do something you will regret, especially if it was caused by an accident."

Asuna and Setsuna both nodded in agreement and slight embarrassment, they could see the point in his words. Asuna had never really thought it that way, but now that she did, she remembered talking to Naruto about her first fight with Kotarou and how scared she had been as a normal girl caught in an abnormal fight between mages. But now that she had joined the other side so to speak, she had completely forgotten how it felt to be on the receiving end. It was rather... sobering. Negi looked rather thoughtful, he never had issues with this primarily because he never felt the need to fight for his life before, he had never even thought about how a normal person would feel while watching him fight with awe inspiring blasts of elements and magic as well as the fear it could inspire in them.

"It's alright you guys, don't look so down. Now that you guys know how bad it feels like to hurt someone without meaning to because you didn't know how to properly use your abilities, you'll put more effort into practice and be more serious about it. You can learn how to really push yourselves to the limit and control the amount of energy you put into your attacks in a safe environment so you don't lose control on the battlefield or accidentally hurt passer bys the next time."

All of them nodded in agreement while Chachamaru stayed silent at his side.

Naruto grinned at them, "Anyways, now that there's nothing to be worried about, I did that because I was sure I could survive; all of you should get back to the Tournament and watch the battles."

All of them looked at each other, they had completely forgotten about the Tournament. Just as everyone got up to leave, Konoka perked up, she had forgotten something, "Naruto, you said that pactio in our battle was made with my father, can I see?"

Everyone looked at him hopefully and Naruto made a slight chuckle before passing them the card.

It looked like a regular pactio, in the middle was the image of Naruto in his by now trademark mask, wearing the blue trench coat while six crystals orbited around him. The top left contained the Roman numeral for eight while the top right had the word _Rubor._

Under the image of Naruto were the words;

_Namicaze Naruto, _

_Custodiet et Cadens Stella, _

_Virtue : Sincerus, _

_Directio : Oriens,_

At the bottom left of the card were the words _Astralitas : Caelum Sideralis._

Once everyone was satisfied and turned to leave the room, Naruto spoke again, "Ah, Konoka, do you mind waiting here a bit longer? I have something I need to speak to you. Chachamaru as well."

**Play Yuki Kajiura – Hear Our Prayer**

Everyone gave Konoka and Naruto a puzzled look but didn't argue. Konoka settled back into her chair and silently waited for the rest to quietly troop out of the room while Chachamaru sat sedately by Naruto's side.

Drawing a deep breath Naruto spoke, "First of all I want to apologize; I unfairly placed the burden of causing and watching me get hurt squarely on your shoulders. In all honesty, that match was actually solely meant for you, my clone was only meant to battle either of them and teach them the lesson that having that kind of power isn't a joke. But since luck matched everyone up so nicely, I thought I might as well include Asuna and Setsuna in our match and do everything in one go."

Konoka looked at Naruto inquisitively, "Ok... I can understand that but you implied there was more than one reason for me?"

Naruto simply nodded, "Neither of them have the massive reserves you do and most of their attacks aren't immediately lethal like the wide area simultaneous 6 layer spell you did earlier when you weren't holding back. During our training, I noticed that you are particularly hesitant in using your spells in combat despite the proficiency you seem to have with them. To be frank, I wasn't sure at the time, and simply assumed that the reason that you have only relied on your fans so far is probably because they limit the amount of damage you can do with your spells. So I hoped by pushing you into unleashing the full might of your spells in this battle it might have been able to get you around that stumbling block. After seeing your reaction during and after the match I realized my earlier assumptions were somewhat wrong. Am I right?"

Konoka looked at her twisting fingers in her lap with slight shame; she hadn't known that the blonde had noticed that particular quirk.

Konoka averted her eyes slightly, "You-you're not completely wrong... I-I don't want to hurt anybody, it doesn't feel right. Ever since Kyoto, a lot of people tell me that my magical reserves are far bigger than most people, even compared to Negi-sensei. Sometimes when I'm training alongside him I noticed that any spell that we both did; mine would always be bigger and more powerful."

Konoka drew a deep breath and shakily spoke, "Like you said, at first I didn't think about what kind of da-damage I could do you know. But that day, when Negi-sensei saw the power in my spells, he praised me for it but at the same time it struck me that I could hurt a lot of people. I was happy I could help, but seeing what I could do..."

Konoka trailed off before steeling her nerves again, "After that, I didn't want to use that power, because it's really scary. Then I noticed that no matter how much magic I put into my fans when I used them, their attacks had a limit and they didn't seem so dangerous, so I preferred to use them. I thought it would get better after that, but when I see what Asuna, Negi-sensei or even Setsuna can do, I feel like their leaving me behind. I wanted to help them fight, but I'm too scared of my power and I don't want to hurt anybody... "

She silently admitted that the reason she tried to be so outgoing and brazen was partly to compensate for her inadequacy on the battlefield.

A soft hand on her shoulder broke her from her musings and she looked up to see Naruto smiling apologetically at her, "I knew you didn't like hurting people Konoka, you're too sweet and nice but I'm sorry I didn't notice that earlier and tried to put you in an even more uncomfortable position by pushing you. If nothing else, I respect your choice and I won't force you to do otherwise. Worst case scenario you would simply have the option of defending yourself if, not when, the time comes and not make a mistake that you might regret when you do."

He gave her a thumbs up and a smile, "Not wanting to hurt anybody is nothing to be ashamed of, if you want we'll only focus on evading and endurance from now on so you can heal or attack as you wish. In some ways, you are a far better person than me, killing and hurting is easy, but it takes real ability to heal. If you're worried about what the others may think just talk to them. I think they'll support you no matter what. Even if they don't, and that's a very big if, I'll still accept you no matter what."

Konoka started trembling in her seat.

"Konoka? Are you ok?"

A few tear drops splashed onto her fists that were clutching her skirt tightly. She could still see some blood stains on them through her blurry eyes.

Naruto frowned slightly and sighed before looking at Chachamaru who had been silent so far, for permission, which was granted with a slight nod.

The blonde gave her a silent apology before leaning forward and wrapping his arms around the girl, "Shh... it's nothing to cry or be sad about. Be proud that you are a better person than most people. Be proud that you can heal better than others. I'm proud of you."

Konoka cried silently into his shirt and spoke haltingly, her voice muffled by his shirt, "I-I'm not sad. I'm happy. For years everyone treated me like a princess, but I was just a princess in a gilded cage, never knowing anything, just living but not alive. I didn't even know what my parents did for a living until the Kyoto trip 3 months ago."

She hiccupped slightly, "I didn't want to go back to being treated like a pampered princess, I felt the only way I could do that was prove that I could fight alongside you and Negi-sensei. But when I realized it was so hard to fight, to hurt people, I tried to act differently so people didn't automatically push me back into that gilded cage. After you said that I was royalty, that you couldn't love me like that, especially when you compared me to that pink haired bitch you called a crush with a fetish for tall dark and handsome, I was really hurt. Was nothing I did enough? That after everything I did, I would never be more than that princess in a gilded cage. Even though I pushed myself, did I really have to use that power before you or Negi-sensei would acknowledge me as someone other than that airheaded princess? I wanted to fight you so badly today because I had something to prove even if I didn't like it. But now you said you accepted me even if I couldn't fight, you would accept me, even as a healer as your support. I felt so happy."

The blonde's heart fell, how could he have messed up so badly by assuming things?

Oh wait... so **that's** what those klaxons meant...

Shii...

Even if the situations were different, he felt no better than the villagers of Konoha. After his speech about chances to Mana, he had neglected to give one to Konoka herself, especially after she tried so hard to win both his affections and in training. _Clarity of vision_ my ass when he couldn't even help a teenage girl.

He held her tighter, mumbling apologies as sincerely as he could, while another set of arms circled the two of them.

"Don't say 'even as a healer'. As **the** healer. No matter what you do, I will accept you Konoka. I'm so sorry for not giving you a chance, for hurting you like that. Oh Kami, I'm so sorry, I know it's too late, but I shouldn't have turned you down like that that night without even giving you a chance."

Konoka disengaged from him and smiled a watery smile that immediately went sly.

Alarm bells started ringing again.

"Good. Chachamaru you heard him."

"Noted. Will you be joining us in bed from now on?"

"Maybe but I don't want anybody else to know yet."

"Wait... whut?" Naruto's head swung bewilderedly between the suddenly chatting girls.

"Nothing, dear."

"No, no, no, that wasn't nothing, forgetting to feed the cats is nothing, Evangeline falling into a pit of ketchup is nothing, joining us in bed is something. And I swear in the name of God's underwear I heard something."

Konoka smirked at him, "You didn't hear wrong."

Chachamaru nodded slightly, "I'll leave you two to hash out the details, I have to get back to the arena. I hope to see you in bed soon Konoka."

Konoka leaned over and kissed her cheek before whispering a quiet thanks to the gynoid. Chachamaru smiled at her and left quietly after plopping a sniggering Akako on Naruto's lap.

Naruto who seemed to be suffering whiplash from rapidly turning his head looked at her with wide confused eyes, "Wha-what was that?" Naruto rubbed his temples, "Wait don't answer that, I think I need to sleep, regenerating my arm must've have tired me out more than I expected because I think I just saw you kiss Chachamaru on the cheek."

The princess stifled the urge to pet his cheeks and coo at him; he was so adorable when he looked confused (read : stuck in denial).

Dawww... Like a kicked puppy. A very big and blonde and wide blue eyed, kicked puppy.

She quivered her bottom lip at him, "You were lying when you said you would give me a chance?"

Naruto took one look at the trembling lip and the about-to-water-eyes and immediately backpedalled, shaking his hands frantically, "No, no, nuu, I didn't say that, I mean... I uh...*deep sigh*... I just wanted to know how we got to that conclusion, like how did we go from princess to bed?" he was nearly pleading with her so that he could end his confused suffering.

"Simple, everything you said was stopping you from dating me that day is solved." She started counting her fingers off one by one, "Acknowledging me as someone that could stand by your side, you said you accepted me as **the **healer albeit I had something different in mind, namely beating your ass in the Tournament, but in the end it worked out well enough, so tick one, we agreed that I don't have pink hair nor am I a shallow bitch with a tall, dark and handsome fetish, tick two, I don't want to be considered royalty so **'deserving' **a better life married to someone that can love me in an ivory tower is a moot point, tick three, another 2 or 3 years and I'll be of legal age, it's not like I was asking you to marry me on the spot, tick four, the only problem was you being loyal to Chachamaru. So I asked her to share. She agreed and was even happy I asked her. Tick five and problem solved." The girl finished with a very casual tone as she counted the last finger.

Naruto's jaw dropped.

Then his eyes rolled back into his head as he fainted.

Akako sniggered again before leaping onto Konoka's lap and making herself comfortable in a curled up ball of fur.

Konoka grinned at the small fox, it seemed like Akako had accepted her without a problem. The princess smiled and ran her fingers through his soft hair. He was so innocent sometimes. And that could only be a good thing... hehehe...

She leaned back into her chair, her romance novel back in her hands as she noted that the two of them were ironically in the same position as when Naruto presumptuously turned her down a few days ago as she absently stroked the sunshine yellow hair, waiting for Naruto to resume normal operations again and ask her the questions she knew he would have. It didn't take long before Naruto groaned slightly and his blue eyes peeked out at her from behind his blonde bangs. He rubbed his temples in slight exasperation before speaking, "That... was a dream right? I mean, Chachamaru agreeing to share and all that?"

Konoka quirked one eyebrow at him, "Most males I know would be very happy at the prospect of being fawned over by multiple women. I'm surprised you're so against it."

Naruto sat up and sighed again before his fingers played with his bedspread nervously, "It's not that I'm against it per say, I just don't know how to react. True I would prefer just one person to love and I don't know how to handle taking care of more than one partner but men with multiple wives aren't that uncommon where I come from and I knew that had I not been betrayed, I would most likely have ended up with more than one wife." He admitted sheepishly before giving her a pained look, "Besides, it seems like getting you to give up isn't an option even if I say I'm a monster so I won't try, but I'm not sure I can show the same level of commitment to you that I have for Chachamaru. That's the biggest problem I have, among others, I wouldn't mind if things were equal, and I have equal affection for the two of you. You deserve that much Konoka, but as things stand, my feelings for Chachamaru are stronger than those I have for you. I'm not so sure that you deserve getting the short end of the stick, so to speak, in this relationship, nor would my conscience allow it."

Konoka licked her lips slightly; his nobility in this kind of situations was so... delicious, plus it was obvious he was nervous. How endearing... If Setsuna were here, there would be so many fun things she could tease the swordsgirl about, knowing her slight fetish for men with principles.

Naruto stared weirdly at Konoka's spaced out expression and waved his hand in front of her face, "Konoka? You alright?"

"Hmm? What? Oh yeah, sorry I was thinking about... something."

Naruto didn't dare to ask what she meant by something. It generally involved whipped cream and whips. And he wasn't the one wielding them either.

"What were you saying again? Equal affection? No problem then. We'll date until either you feel that you can love us both equally or I give up before anything becomes official, I don't particularly care about rank so not being the first wife or whatever has no bearing." Konoka simply stated as she folded her hands sedately on her lap while she gently petted Akako.

Naruto developed a slight tick in his jaw, she had explained her plan in this really matter of fact tone that said there wasn't any other option and their dating was a foregone thing.

"Sigh... before I agree to anything there are two things I want to deal with." He eyed the princess who was scratching a purring Akako between the ears nervously, "Don't get offended, but was what you said about being insecure earlier true or were you just looking for sympathy."

Konoka gave him a slightly miffed look before lowering her eyes, understanding the need for him to clear it up, "They were all true." She said a soft tone, "I really don't like using my power. And I don't want to go back to being the ditzy princess everyone saw me as. I was really hurt at what you said because it seemed like even you thought I was just the ditzy one in the group no matter what I did."

Naruto scratched his head furiously; great he had made her all melancholy again. Reaching over he grasped her free hand, absently he noted her hand was really small and soft, and squeezed it gently, "I get it. I just wanted to be sure. Especially since you perked up so suddenly. I didn't want to go into this without knowing whether you were sincere or not."

Konoka wearily smiled a bit, "I'm not most girls. I got angry, I got sad and then I cried. Once that was done I saw no point in continuing to wallow in my angst. Plus you owed me; I wasn't going to miss the chance to collect."

Naruto grinned before giving her a mock hurt look, "Very well, as my princess orders. I suppose I do owe you a proper date since you won the match."

Konoka's smile widened a little now that Naruto didn't seem so opposed to the idea and even bantered with her, she returned his mock look of hurt, "Won? I thought we agreed I'm not ditzy? Asuna may have forgotten and Setsuna was probably too polite to mention it but we certainly didn't win."

"Eh? Naruto gave her a confused look, causing Konoka to laugh quietly, "I knew you weren't holding back in the match. As in you fought as hard as you could at what? 30%, 40% of your full power? That's not all; you restricted that 30-40% to purely hand to hand combat and only your pactio. You didn't use any of your other forms, like that fire demon one and I heard that hooded man say you were maintaining a powerful barrier at the same time." Konoka snorted and shot a look of mock disdain at him, "Under those conditions, at best we were fighting a 'you' that wasn't holding back at 20%. Give or take. In other words, you lost on purpose. When I saw that you lose your arm, I was more afraid there was something else wrong with you other than the arm because you certainly wouldn't have lost so easily under any other circumstances." She gave him a pointed look as she finished. "Unlike Asuna, I wasn't asleep during the analytical lessons."

Naruto laughed loudly and pulled Konoka onto his bed beside him, the girl and the fox on her lap gave a quiet squawk at the sudden move, "I think you deserve a present for being so observant." He pecked her on the cheek lightly and the girl blushed. Then he proceeded to rub Akako's tummy, she started to purr even louder, his past transgressions completely forgiven as the blonde cooed at his daughter.

Konoka ignored the blush as best she could and gave him a piercing look, "So why did you lose like that? Didn't you have faith in us?"

Naruto shrugged, "Of course I had faith in all of you but why win? After pushing all three of you so hard, losing would have given the three of you more confidence in your own abilities in the long run. If I still won even after making the three of you try so hard, it would have been pointless and demoralizing. I already made my point and it was enough, besides if the sight of me missing an arm didn't hammer home the fact that Magic isn't all fun and games, nothing else will."

Konoka eyed him for a while before accepting his reasons with a nod.

Then she leaned into his side with a contented sigh, causing Naruto to look at her in amusement, "What now?"

Naruto scratched his chin in thought, "If you're talking about the competition, I have a clone in place. It doesn't really matter but like I said, I wanted to fight either Setsuna or you so I was going to tamper with the match selections so that I could at least fight two out of three but since the arrangements were good enough I didn't bother and just left him there to scout what the 'hooded man' as you called him can do in a fight before I replace the clone and fight him myself during our scheduled match, so we should probably be heading back, plus I want to see Eva-chan and Negi's fight. On the other hand if you're talking about us, I want to talk to Chachamaru about something before I confirm anything more than casual dating." He looked at her, "Is that good enough for you?"

Konoka nodded before slipping off the bed so that they could both head back to the arena, she looked back at the blonde who hadn't moved, "Aren't you coming?"

"No you go ahead. I have something I want to do."

Konoka looked at him strangely before leaving with a napping Akako in her arms.

"Wait."

Konoka looked back at him again.

"Why me?"

Instinctively she knew what Naruto was asking and flicked a folding fan open to hide her amused smile.

"Because it's interesting."

She could feel the blonde's confused gaze on her back as she left, the change in her demeanour and posture was obvious, she was more self assured and confident compared to earlier after having accepted her flaws and advantages. Sighing at the completely vague answer he switched his attention to a corner of the room he sighed, "Go ahead, the rest already beat me up pretty badly and I can guess what you want to do Eva-chan."

The small vampire faded into view before striding over to the bed, never losing eye contact for a moment. Once she had reached the bedside she gave him a resounding slap.

Naruto rubbed his red cheek slightly and gave her a sad grin, "Ok I guess I deserve that."

"I expected something stupid from you but that went beyond the pale."

Naruto cocked his head at her in confusion, "What? Why?"

She gave him a steely look with a sneer that curled her lips, "Was it really necessary to let yourself lose an arm? Those of us that knew what you could do were terrified that something was wrong with you because even if that girl's attack was very powerful it shouldn't have been able to push you that far."

Naruto ruffled her hair and the vampire lips thinned even further before batting his hand away roughly, "You heard m-"

Evangeline snorted and casually seated herself in the chair Konoka had vacated, "I heard what you said to that girl, but that wasn't what I saw. What I did see was you using your own body as an object lesson and a meat shield; I know you could have ended that match with the same results without unnecessary damage to yourself. In other words you allowed that hit to land and do damage. Don't you care about your own body at all?"

Naruto waved her words away, "Don't worry, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. That wasn't the first time I had to regrow a major limb."

Evangeline didn't back down and stared at him quietly with a focused gaze, "You were punishing yourself weren't you? I thought you were done with that part since you stopped killing people?"

Naruto glared at her, "That's a bit rich coming from you, you can't forgive yourself either, and that's what you would have done even if you deny it."

"At least I know and already accepted that part of me, but why are you still punishing yourself?"

Naruto climbed out of bed and started to dress. Evangeline fumed and yelled at his back, "Don't ignore me! You still regret killing people in your past don't you? That's why you don't care if you get hurt at all."

Naruto stilled and turned back to gaze at her before giving her a twisted smile, "Who said I regret anything? What I do regret is not making their deaths even more painful."

He snorted and gave her a grin filled with irony, "If anything that just proves we're really siblings. Two monsters that can't forgive themselves."

The vampire pointed at him with a steady finger, "This isn't about forgiving ourselves. I could care less if you took a long walk off a short cliff, but I want to ask you this. If you hurt yourself badly or passed away, what do you think Akako and Chachamaru would do? What happened to the promise that you wouldn't hurt either of them?"

The blonde froze at the truth in her words and sighed before walking over the vampire and enveloping her in his arms, "Ok, Ok I get it. My life is worth something, I'll try not to think that I'm expendable ok? But you have to try as well."

Evangeline struggled for a moment before she sighed and grudgingly agreed.

******Broken Faith******

"Kotarou-kun, you did well. I didn't expect you to be that good. I was really shocked," Chizuru said as she fixed the blankets on him. "Come on, lie down for now and get some rest..." Chizuru's effort in soothing him was only having a minimal effect at best and she was surprised at how Kotarou flinched and pulled away from her. The look she saw on his face, the look of utter sadness and disappointment, made her heart ache for the boy. Grabbing his jacket, Kotarou bolted out of the room. "Kota-chan!" Chizuru said getting up from here chair. She was about to run after him when a hand on her shoulder stopped her and Kaede.

Spinning around she was surprised to see the man in a blue cloak, none of them even noticed that he was in the room, her surprise was magnified even further when the hand moved to pull off the white blank mask with a soft click to show a whiskered face.

"Naruto!"

The blonde smiled slightly, "Why don't you go back and watch the rest of the Tournament. I'll take care of Kotarou." He nodded at Kaede to show that she was included in that statement.

Both of them hesitated but while Kaede moved to the door Chizuru took a moment to feel his arm. Once she was satisfied it was all there she gave him a steely glare, "We'll be talking about you and your arm. I don't know you're perfectly fine but I don't believe for a second that you didn't lose your arm."

The blonde returned her glare with a lop sided smile, "I still owe you a chat about everything else. Will tomorrow be ok?"

The busty pseudo mother of 3-A gave a satisfied nod before following Kaede's footsteps out of the infirmary.

******With Kotarou******

**Play Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto OST – Kouya Ruten**

The wolf boy sat on top of the roof, watching the arena below him with unseeing eyes.

"Sucks doesn't it? To be beaten so easily."

Kotarou growled at the voice, "What do you want? Another not enough brains lecture?"

Instead of a reply the cloak blonde took a seat beside the wolf boy uninvited and stretched his arms before sighing in content, "Not really. Whether you win or lose doesn't matter to me. I just happened to want some fresh air and you were already here."

Kotarou growled again, "But it **does **matter to me! Someone like me with nothing going for me, someone who only knows how to fight, someone who grew up alone and only depended on myself, I have no goals other than that, yet I lost today. What meaning does my existence have if I can't achieve one goal? If I can't even keep up with Negi he won't be interested in someone like me!" he yelled at the relaxed blonde while desperately holding back tears.

Naruto smiled at the boy's demand and laid on the roof, his eyes glazed over, "Puppy, you remember that time in class when I asked you what would you do if you fought me? Whether you would put everything on the line and die with those precious to you or retreat with them and fight another day?"

"Don't call me puppy!" Kotarou bit out, it grated on his already fragile ego, "But I remember, what does that have to do with me?"

Naruto looked at him with a serious mien, "Everything. It hurts doesn't it? Fighting alone, everyday you only fight, sometimes you even have to fight just so you have the right to live. Growing up that way, you can't even find meaning in anything but to fight because you know no other way, you have no one to depend on but yourself. It gets lonely doesn't it?"

Kotarou gulped at the blonde, there was something in his voice, something in those sapphire clear eyes that said the blonde knew what he was saying.

"Wha-what are you talking about you senile old bastard! Winning is good, it's the only proof of my existence!"

Naruto didn't let the reply stop him, "Tell me. If you won today what would you do? If you keep winning until you were an adult, until there was no one else left to fight, what would you do? If there's no one else left to fight you to prove that you are alive does that mean you win until you are dead?"

"Huh... I..." Kotarou looked at his feet in thought, what would he do? When there was no one else to fight then what? Die? Alone?

"Did it feel nice? Being with Murakami-san and Chizuru? Eating dinner with them and joking with them. Playing with Ayaka and competing with Negi. It was fun wasn't it?" Naruto smiled at him, "It feels good doesn't it? Knowing even when you fall you have someone who cares for you like they do?"

Kotarou's head spun at the sudden change in conversation topics, "Gu-guh, what are you suddenly talking about? Of course it was fun! Wait! How did you know?"

Naruto looked back at the arena where Negi was fighting the blonde girl and a small smile curled his lips as he ignored the outburst.

"Did you feel alive when they looked at you?"

"Hu-huh?" Kotarou thought about it. It was... fun. It felt like he was somebody worth acknowledging.

That focused gaze turned back to him, "I don't presume to lecture you about your ideals; you think fighting is everything, you feel alive when you fight, if that's what floats your boat then go ahead. If you want to fight until you die alone in a gutter at the age of 100 that's up to you."

"This is something I will never say to Negi because he won't understand what it's like. Despite his less than stellar childhood he has people who has supported him and encouraged him. People that you and I never grew up with. People like you and I know what true loneliness is. We are people that fought just so we could be acknowledged, just so we could survive with the same rights that anybody else does."

That gaze was starting to hurt. It wasn't the same kind of power from that day in class, this was a different kind of power altogether.

"Years ago, before I succumbed to my anger, I lived by the words that someone told me once,that_** 'You are only truly strong when you have someone to protect. Someone precious to you'**_. I no longer consider myself worthy of that ideal but you haven't passed that threshold yet despite your life so far. I ask of you now, compare the match between the one where you fought just because you wanted to fight to the one where that person who defeated you in the Tournament threatened Ayaka, Negi, Chizuru and Murakami-san before you fought. What is the difference? You don't have to tell me. Ask yourself, don't hide from your insecurities or feel the need to bluster because the answer to that question is for you and you alone."

Kotarou set his jaw, he didn't understand a lot of what the blonde had just said, but he knew what he didn't want to hide the answer, "I would fight him so I could protect them. I don't care if I lose. I would still keep fighting."

Naruto gave him a small approving smile, "Then you are strong even if you are weak. You grew up without bonds, without anybody to care for you."

"You were empty, that's why fighting made you feel alive. Then you came here you found people like that, people that supported you and cared for you no matter what and you don't ever want to lose those bonds."

The blonde got up and walked away, "Now that you know the difference between the you who fought for fun, who fought to survive from Kyoto and the you that is here now that will fight for something more profound than just surviving, I'll leave it to you to interpret what I meant when I said that you are strong when you have something to protect. I cannot make you believe. Only you can do that."

Kotarou watched the blonde walk away with one last wave over his shoulders before hunkering down on the roof and started to think. How did having someone precious to you make you strong? And why did the blonde speak as though those words were the reason he was what he is today. Arghhh! It was so confusing! But he knew.

He knew that he needed to get stronger so that he could stay with them.

Naruto stopped just short of the roof's opposite edge before quietly speaking, "You can say what you want to him now. Who knows? He might even bury that pride of his and accept your offer of help. Oh and I'm sorry for ending that match so fast. Next time we'll have a proper match."

"No, it was my own inexperience for allowing you to land an immediately decisive hit without any chance for a comeback, it was a good lesson, had you hit a fraction harder, that attack would have severed my spine. I look forward to our next fight."

The blonde grinned in thanks before fading into thin air.

Kaede stepped out of the shadows with a slight frown. The blonde's ability to detect her was highly unnerving sometimes, as was his ability to guess her thoughts, especially when he didn't even seem to be making much of an effort to do so. It was like he knew how a ninja operated.

She looked back at Kotarou and slowly approached him.

******Broken Faith******

"Hmm..." Chao stated while watching a holographic screen. "Nice Takane-san. The fancier you get the easier it is for me." Behind her stood Takahata and Chibi Setsuna in electrical restraints.

"Chao-san! What exactly are you planning? You're supposed to be our classmate!" Chibi Setsuna demanded.

"Ah sorry, Baka Setsuna-kun, I didn't plan to treat you two so harshly but there's simply no time. The tournament also opened in a hurry...originally this was supposed to take place next year..." Chao sighed.

"It's because the world tree had an unexpected speed up in its glow due to the odd circumstances?" Takahata half questioned half stated.

"Ah... as expected from Takahata-sensei!"

"Chao-kun what is your objective? Depending on your reply, I might not be able to let you get away with this, even if you were my student."

"What am I planning? Nothing big really. According to my research, the number of mages spread throughout the world is about twice the population of the area of Tokyo, which is more than all the Chinese immigrants in the world as well. That's quite a number ne? And even nowadays there is an 'underworld' that exists slightly out of our own world that has its own countries as well."

"...and then?"

"You don't have to worry about anything Takahata-sensei, it won't bring trouble to the normal people. My objective is simply to declare the existence of mages to the entire world."

******Broken Faith******

A blue cloaked figure stood with his back straight and his cloak flapping in the wind as he watched the match between Takane and Negi wind down before a meteor with pink hair crashed into him from behind.

"Naruto-sensei!"

Surprised, all the blonde could do was hold onto the sobbing girl and try to stabilize himself so that the both of them didn't fall into the water. Once that was done he smiled as he stroked her hair to calm her down, "Yeah, I'm alright. You didn't have to worry bout me."

Makie wiped her tears away on his shirt and sniffled after a few moments of taking comfort in his scent and presence, "I-I wasn't worried about you Evil Naruto-sensei, don't get ahead of yourself! I'm just worried an idiot like you wouldn't be able to teach me anything more if you got hurt!"

"What was that you brat? Don't look down on me!"

The two of them bickered back and forth with insults. Naruto would have been appalled if he had noticed that this was a familiar scene, one where Makie was replaced by a short blonde in an orange jumpsuit, and Naruto himself would have been replaced by an old man with long white hair and markings on his face.

******Broken Faith******

"Ah..." Asuna face palmed as the blonde girl Negi was fighting ran off the stage, dressed only in Negi's battered cloak, "What the hell is that idiot thinking? Doesn't he have any delicacy?"

"Ahaha... Negi-sensei stripped a girl again..." Setsuna quietly chuckled beside the red head. "This isn't funny Setsuna, if he keeps stripping every girl he meets he's going to grow up a pervert."

"Fufufu, wouldn't that be interesting? I'm sure a lot of our classmates would be happy if that were the case."

Both of them were startled by the now familiar dainty laugh and spun around to see the long haired brunette, "Konoka! Ojou-sama!" both of them exclaimed, "You're here! Is Naruto ok?"

Konoka just nodded, "I left him in the resort, he says there's something he needs to do, but I expect he will be here soon."

Asuna grumbled a little about idiotic blondes before Negi joined them and she started to scold the boy.

Konoka smiled at the red head's motherly attitude while Setsuna walked up beside her, "Did something go well Ojou-sama? You seem different; you didn't make any crude jokes about Negi becoming a pervert." The swordsgirl spoke quietly but honestly.

"My, my... aren't you blunt today..." Konoka laughed a little. "Don't worry about it Se-chan. A little side project of mine went well, that's all."

Setsuna looked at her weirdly but before she could ask what her princess meant, Evangeline joined them. Setsuna nodded at her before looking like she just realized something, "Ah, I forgot since we were all busy with Naruto-sensei, Kazumi declared that our match with Naruto-sensei was a draw. No one won. That means you'll be fighting Negi-sensei right after this Evangeline-sensei."

"Geeeh!" Negi who had heard Setsuna's words blanched. He could match Takahata-sensei but he knew that fighting Evangeline was a moot point, even if she didn't have any magic powers to augment her abilities. He had been beaten into the ground by Evangeline-sensei, with or without magic, enough times as proof during their training.

Evangeline waved the comment off, "I'm forfeiting the match. There is no reason for us to fight now, I'm already satisfied with what I've seen so far and it isn't the time for the two of us to have a real match yet. This stage isn't great enough for our grand finale."

"Eh!" this time everyone around them exclaimed in surprise as Evangeline smirked, "What? Do you **want **me to fight you now?"

Negi waved his hand frantically, "No, no, I know I can't win yet."

"Good. But don't get a big head just because you managed to get to the finals and lose your focus. No matter who your opponent is, even if you are fighting a normal human don't let your guard down, I'm pretty sure Naruto beat that into your bones after the first few times you hit the floor. If you still do so, keep in mind your training will be tripled."

Negi blanched at the threat before saluting proudly with a determined expression, "Hai Evangeline-sensei!"

The vampire averted her face, "Go-good."

"Ah. Master is blushing."

"Shut up Chachazero! What in the world is wrong with you and Chachamaru!"

"Ah... Does that mean I don't have to accompany you on the last day anymore?" Negi asked with a clueless look on his face.

******Broken Faith******

"**Everyone! Its finally time for the second half of our semi finals after Contestant Evangeline McDowell mysteriously forfeited against Contestant Negi Springfield! The Mysterious N.U. against the equally mysterious KuNel Sanders! Let's give our two contestants a big cheer!"**

Quietly Evangeline started casting the same barrier Naruto had used earlier. This promised to be a good fight, she'd let everybody enjoy it for now, but she would prefer that people didn't remember the specifics. The vampire gave a nod of acknowledgement at the silent thanks she received from both of the contestants on the arena.

Two figures silently walked up to the stage from opposite sides. The cloaked figure faced the robed one, both of them ignored the cheers and Kazumi's shouts and sized each other up silently, until the former gave a short bow of respect and spoke, "I didn't expect us to fight so soon, come to think of it I still don't know what you're capable of in a fight but I'm expecting a lot from a member of the infamous Ala Rubra, I hope I can learn a lot from you."

"Ohoho, you flatter me. I'm no one special, but to be honest I'm very curious about you as well, the Black Paladin, even as isolated as I am, rumours of you managed to reach my ears and the fact that you've only been active for 3 months made me even more interested."

The cloaked figure cocked his head in confusion, "Black Paladin? What's that?"

"Fufufufu, don't mind me. Shall we?" Hands slid out of the robe in a defensive stance.

"I suppose so. Do you mind telling me what you told Negi though?"

"If you impress me enough I might tell you."

"Fair enough." In one smooth motion Naruto flashed forward and drew back one chakra enhanced fist as Albireo did the same to his magic enhanced one. Naruto brought up his left fist to punch Al's face but the mage caught it in his palm. To retaliate, Albireo did an elbow strike with his free hand, but Naruto caught that with his own hand as well. Both let go of each other's fists and elbows and did another punch that connected with each other, leading into yet another shockwave. When they retracted this time, Naruto crouched down and did a sweep kick. His opponent however jumped up to avoid it. Spinning on his hands, Naruto lifted himself up and aimed a kick upward towards the mages chest.

Albireo made a barrier at the last moment, reducing the amount of damage the kick would have done and caught Naruto's foot. He then lifted up Naruto and was going to slam him down to the ground. The blond twisted in the person's grasp and aimed a chakra enhanced punch at the barrier. His right arm which was glowing a faint blue ripped forward and shattered the barrier allowing him to aim another kick with his free leg at the arm holding his other leg. Seeing this Albireo let go of the leg, and aimed a palm strike at the blond's chest. Knowing that he won't be able to block it, Naruto twisted his body at the last moment. This gave momentum to his leg and it acted like a whip forcing Albireo to move away as to not be hit on the head. When Naruto landed on the floor, he aimed on more punch at Albireo who attacked with yet another palm strike. The two caused a final shockwave when their attacks connected that forced them to jump apart.

Each to the opposite part of the stage.

**Play AKINO – Go Tight**

"**The match has suddenly started! After saying something we couldn't hear, contestant N.U. has started the fight by taking the offensive with a lot of flashy moves! Wait... what's this? Contestant N.U.'s true identity is Naruto Namikaze of 3-A? Even more surprising is that he is completely... healthy! Does this mean his earlier injuries in that fight was really nothing but CG?"**

Grunting slightly the two watched each other warily. Taking stock of his lightly bruising rib the blonde spoke with a slight frown, "That's really annoying you know."

"Hoh? I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about."

"You and that going with the blow thing, that's how you defeated Kotarou isn't it? Every attack I land on you barely has any damage because you shift your centre of gravity in the direction of the blow."

"Fufufufu."

Naruto snorted and decided to change his tactics, he needed to corner Albiero to a point where that method didn't work. Without any hesitation his cloak was ripped off and thrown at the robed man but before Albiero could do anything about it, a blast of lightning tore through the distraction. Swaying slightly on the spot Alibiero dodged the lightning and deflected a punch from behind before twisting his hand around his attacker's wrist and flipping Naruto, hoping to slam him into the ground, only for the blonde to twist mid air, land on his feet and throw him into the air instead before following it up with blasts of intense fire.

Up in her office Chao smiled slightly, although probably wasn't intentional, Naruto-jiji had inadvertently set her plans back a whole lot by showing up completely fine. She didn't mind though, the Chinese girl thought of it as punishment for profiting on his precious injuries.

The blonde on the stage didn't hear a word of what Kazumi was shouting, focusing on Albiero who had somehow started floating in mid air and avoided his fire balls.

Hmm... it seems like you're going all out with magic, Naruto," Albireo stated in a whimsical tone. "Why don't I turn it up a notch and match you?" Albireo then lifted up his hand and with a quick flick of his wrist the gravity over the area where Naruto was standing multiplied. There was a deafening boom causing people to cover their ears as well as the shockwave caused a dust cloud to rise up and cover the arena. When the smoke cleared everyone saw that the blond was still upright and watching the floating figure with a bored look on his face that contradicted his glowing and focused purple eyes. In contrast with the serene blond, the entire area around him looked like a meteor had hit.

Albiero almost stumbled despite being in mid air, this was the first time his gravity magic was completely ineffective. Though a closer look showed that the blonde's clothes were slightly mussed, which meant it had affected him before he found a way to counter it.

"That's new..." He mused quietly, "You seem to have some sort of control over gravity as well... Let's see if you can handle something stronger." Under his hood he gritted his jaw as he increased the amount of pressure, in response, Naruto grunted and threw up his hands and seemed to be trying to lift an invisible mountain.

Trembling slightly at the effort Albiero glared at the lone blonde who although winded didn't seem to be injured before a massive build up of energy from the opposite side of the arena below him caught his attention. When he saw another three blondes standing in a circle and they all seemed to be doing something with their hands, Albiero realized instantly that the one who had his attention was a decoy and flung up his strongest barrier.

"_Jiongu : Saishu Shageki!"_ all three of them looked upwards, their throats bulged to jaw dropping proportions and they all roared at the same time. Each blonde simultaneously shot flame, wind and lightning at him, the elemental blast immediately twisted and melded into a blinding white elemental beam that Albiero didn't think would be very healthy for him if it hit.

Everyone was blinded by the bright explosion and desperately shielded themselves from the sheer pressure and intense heat of the attack as it roared out into the stratosphere.

A smoking Albiero barely managed to deflect the beam's trajectory with his gravity magic, even then a part of his robes had caught fire just from being too close to the attack, but before he could do anything other than snuff out the small fire on his robes someone tapped his shoulder in mid air. Startled by the contact behind him he spun around in mid air just in time to get a sucker punch to the face before his attacker flipped in mid air and landed an axe kick to his temple.

The older man rocketed downwards and crashed into the ground but the original Naruto who was still in the ground made no move and simply watched the new crater impassively while two of his clones ran towards where Albiero had landed. A slight stirring in the air behind him was all the warning he had before he crouched slightly to evade a submission hold from behind and jerked his head back to slam into Albiero's jaw, as the robed man staggered back, the ground shook as Naruto and his three clones were attacked from all directions by a wave of robed men that appeared out of nowhere. Sadly for Albiero, shortly before his clones overran the blondes, all four of them committed suicide and blew up violently before another Naruto exploded out of the ground and tried to uppercut the original Albiero, succeeding in jarring the man's chin slightly before being kicked away.

The blonde landed lightly on the other side of the arena and grinned slightly, "Using clones on me is a pretty stupid idea, Albiero. I've been using them since I was 12 and I can spot one from a mile away."

Rubbing his jaw slightly Albiero simply grunted in response, the blonde fought dirty and his bag of tricks was as large as it was dangerous. Very much like two certain people he knew. And regrettably enough it worked against someone like him that fought in more elegant formal ways. Squaring his shoulders, Albiero decided that he couldn't stay on the defensive and allow himself to be pulled into the blonde's rhythm, dashing forward the two of them started fighting furiously, exchanging lightning fast blows. To any outsiders it seemed like the blonde had turned into a blur, dashing in circles around a white blur whose styled seemed more defensive and localized, deflecting and parrying attacks from the black and yellow tornado that surrounded it before countering with ruthless efficiency.

A quick roar and a violent shockwave emanated from an annoyed Albiero, causing Naruto to crash into a wall with a crash. The robed man panted slightly at being pushed so far before straightening his back, "I'm out of practice," he muttered slightly before looking at the dust cloud from where Naruto had impacted the wall and leapt into the sky. Not missing a beat at all, the Ala Rubra member started conjuring multiple black spheres the size of beach balls out of nowhere, taking the initiative before the tricky blonde had a chance to magic up a defence, Albiero started flinging the spheres rapidly. The quick and swift movements of his hands were almost a blur.

Every swish of his hands sent one black sphere rocketing into the dust cloud and was followed up by an incredible explosion, the robed man flung his spheres so fast that the multiple explosions blurred into one great continuous sound that jarred everyone present.

After a few seconds of an unrelenting magical barrage Albiero lifted his palms and the awestruck crowd watched as another black orb formed, this one as big as the arena itself. With a quick downward shove of his arms that was nearly violent in its simplicity, the giant meteor made of nearly pure gravity moved to crush its creator's target, only to suddenly shudder to a stop as if the black sphere had run up against an invisible wall.

Spectators swung from one hovering figure to the clearing dust cloud which slowly cleared to reveal a bloody and slightly tattered Naruto with his palms facing the sphere, as if stopping it with will power alone.

Blood started to trickle from Naruto's eyes slightly as he stared determinedly at the giant hovering sphere that trembled in mid air, under pressure from two opposing directions, while muscles ticked in Albiero's arm as he tried to force the sphere down, nothing else moved and even the dust froze as two great forces pushed against each other.

Grunts turned into roars as both men shoved all their power at each other. The sphere which started out as large as a truck slowly compressed into an orb only about as large as a beach ball as forces from opposing directions crashed into it. Before either of them knew it, the orb imploded and the violent explosion crushed Naruto flat into the ground while Albiero struggled to balance himself in mid air as he was thrown about by gale force winds. The crowd could feel the tremors from the explosion even though the orb had exploded in mid air.

After a few tense seconds, Albiero carefully landed on the arena, which was starting to resemble the surface of the moon. His sharp eyes never left the other side of the stage the dust slowly cleared.

"Ouch." Was all the blonde said in a dry tone as he walked out casually. His clothes were now in tatters but ultimately he seemed completely unharmed despite the blood stains in comparison with the impeccable robes of KuNel Sanders.

Albiero chuckled slightly in response, "Are you having fun?"

"Somewhat. Even though I can barely match up with you with my tricks, the difference in basic strength and speed is just too great for now." Naruto gave him a wry grin, "Although I'm a bit hesitant about really using some of my more dangerous moves because of the spectators. So I had to tone things down a bit. We really have to do this again some other time where it's safer."

All over the place jaws were cracking floors.

Tone it down says the man that just fired an apocalyptic beam from his mouth to the man who made black exploding spheres the size of a house out of thin air.

Albiero's robes shifted a bit and he seemed to glance around, "I'm afraid so. We only have 11 minutes left. I'm sorry, I really didn't want to do this but you managed to push me this far despite your handicaps so at the very least I'll make this interesting for you."

"Oh?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. From his sleeve Albireo took out a pactio card. The image was of him being covered by books spiraling around him in a double helix reminiscent of DNA pattern.

"Ah, crap." Naruto charged, desperate not to let whatever Albiero had in mind happen.

**Play Macross Frontier OST – Northern Cross**

"Adeat..." Albireo whispered and there was a bright flash of light. Naruto covered his eyes to make sure he didn't get blinded and when it died down there was a hard cover book within Albireo's hand but didn't stop running. The title was just the name of a person, though the only thing he read on it was the first letter, which was a J. "I'm going to use this book to its full potential. So that's ten minutes. Let's see just how long you last okay...Naruto. By the way tell him to be serious when you see him but no deathblows ok?" Taking a bookmark the mage put it inside the book and pulled it. Just before Naruto's punch landed there was a large wall of wind exploded from it and a light covered the mage in front of him. Just as abruptly as the wind and light came, it went away and Naruto felt a punch to his gut with enough force that caused him to spit out some blood. Then Naruto was rocketed out of the stage and into a building and rubble crashed onto him.

The spectators couldn't decide where to look, where the blonde had crash landed violently and building fell on him or where a man, over six foot tall in height, with tanned skin and a giant mass of wild white hair with two long bangs in the front. He had on a short sleeved blue jacket with a high collar that was a wee bit too small for him judging by the way his body bulged from his top, white pants, a pair of black shoes and a magenta bandana on his forehead, casting a shadow over his eyes now stood instead of the slender robed form of KuNel Sanders.

"What? Where the heck am I?" the strange man spoke while scratching the back of his head in a confused manner. His voice was deep and gruff.

Kazumi nervously spoke, **"A-ano... W-who are you? Where is Contestant KuNel Sanders?"**

The tall man gazed at the girl for a while, confusion gleaming in his eyes, "KuNel Sanders? Oh... Oh! That dumbass always liked weird names... Girl!" Kazumi immediately snapped to attention at being hailed by the giant of a man, "Did the guy that was here before me say anything about time or limits?" he barked at her.

Kazumi hesitated for a while before speaking, **"Errr... he said 10 minutes and to fight seriously but no deathblows if that's what you mean..?"**

A loud explosion rang throughout the shrine and the tall man turned his attention back to where he had punched the person earlier. A topless blonde with weird square purple eyes and orange eye shadow, who was the person he assumed had been attacking Albiero, literally exploded from underneath a lot of rubble before landing on the edge of the arena with one leap.

Ho... this might be interesting after all, enough to force Albeiro to use his pactio card and not hold back at that, Albiero's pactio had two stages, the first one was where Albiero took on the person he was summoning appearance and ability. But that mode was limited to 30% of the original's power because it was being controlled, sort of like a puppet. The second stage however, allowed the personality that was summoned to take over completely and was totally autonomous like now but it enabled the personality to utilize its full power at 100%, conditions permitting. Well power at the time of recording anyway, he wasn't sure when this was; the original Rakan might even be dead for all he knew.

He released his aura to see if the boy was worth fighting only to be just as impressed when the blonde matched his aura, bit for bit.

"Hehehe, this might be fun after all. My name is Jack Rakan. What's yours gaki?"

The blonde grinned, "Naruto Namikaze."

Nothing else was said as fist met fist and the resulting shockwave blew anyone nearby clear off their feet.

******Broken Faith******

**AN**

_**Rubor**_** - Red**

_**Custodiet et Cadens Stella – **_**He who watches the falling stars**

_**Virtue : Sincerus – **_**Virtue : Sincerity**

_**Directio : Oriens – **_**Direction : East**

_**Astralitas : Caelum Sideralis – **_**Astralitas : Starry Skies**

**Jiongu : Saishu Shageki – Earth Grudge Fear : Final Shot**

I got a very amusing Pm that was thanking me about the way I chose to go about doing a harem despite not liking harems. The person thanked me for having some common sense. I.e.; Instead of the insta fall in love almost every other writer does outside of fics that **actually focus on romance anyway**, I took it in stages, made some effort to develop their characters and their relationship with Naruto and that people didn't start humping him by the fifth chapter like wild animals. He specifically described Asuna and Naruto's relationship as realistic; they were close but something drove them apart, she almost disappeared in the fic so that she could have her space and the clumsy, tentative moves after that to rebuild what they once had, the kind of drama that gives the fic a sense of realism. Since that was one of my biggest problems while thinking about this fic, I'd like to thank those of you who agree for your encouragement. Nonetheless, despite his praise for how I did Asuna/Naruto, I'm not very satisfied because I feel it could have been done better.** (It's clumsy not because I did it on purpose. I really, honestly and sincerely had no idea what to do and how a girl would react. Bwahahaha.)**

**And I didn't intend on making Naruto come across as flirty. Caring and flirting are two very different things.**


	21. Hope, Dreams And Trust

**Broken Faith 21**

**Hope, Dreams and Trust**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, Mahou sensei Negima belongs to Ken Akamatsu. Any songs belongs to their respective singers and publishers.**

***Quirks eyebrow* 500 plus alerts for this fic, and only 25ish reviews last chapter? Do I need to do something drastic again?**

**Oh, before I forget, this chapter was released in commemoration of the 352nd chapter of Mahou Sensei Negima.**

**(I was busy with life and just only fucking realized at 5 a.m. in the fucking morning, (F... yeah! Hyped up on Red Bull!) that it was released a week ago! So I decided to release this chapter because chapter 352 was so... sad... you know. I hope this makes people smile again). **

**And thus, only three more chapters left of a manga series that has been running for nearly a decade. By the way? I doubt Negi actually died, I think it's more like he faked his death so nobody got suspicious about why he didn't grow old. Him and a few others probably. This **_**IS **_**Ken Akamatsu after all.**

**Soundtrack List**

Pokemon OST – Lugia's Song Original

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me From Hell

SCANDAL - Secret Base - Kimi ga Kureta Mono

******Broken Faith******

A cup of cooling coffee sat on the table as a pale skinned hand slowly stirred the tepid liquid as Fate Averruncus stared at the swirling black liquid, seemingly in a daze.

"Master?"

The boy looked up with his pale grey eyes to see a concerned girl in a maid dress.

"Are you ok?" Her question was tinged with concern for him.

"I... I'm alright."

After he had presented his findings during the Kyoto mission to his higher ups they had gone into a frenzy about a missing princess finally being found and jumpstarted their missions in Mundus Magicus. He himself had been ordered to return and prepare for...

Prepare for what?

To subdue Naruto Namikaze if he tried to enter Mundus Magicus.

If that wasn't possible, to cripple or kill.

Negi Springfield and any others were not to be hurt too badly but only the blonde actively presented a threat to their operations. It wasn't that surprising; whispers of the Black Paladin had filtered into Mundus Magicus, someone on good terms with three of five Mundus Vetus Magical Leaders, powerful, cunning and seemed pretty damn unstoppable when he felt like it.

Fate paused in his thoughts and picked up an old magical newspaper clipping and smiled, he had been gathering seemingly random newspaper clips but he could see the connection. Naruto had been busy since Kyoto. In each of this clips there was a pattern, in all of them, a blonde clad in a black long coat and white blank mask was always present, usually hidden somewhere in the background. Most times he was just there, observing like a ghost, but sometimes, the black clad man would randomly intervene in missions. Most people wouldn't notice, but there was a method to the blonde's madness. Murders, Rapists, Slavers, unless it involved a severe crime of some sort against humanity in general he wouldn't intervene in something he had somehow judged according to some hidden principle as not worth his time.

But when he did, the blonde had a spotless record, zero casualties. No one died, be it in his squad, the hostages... Well except for the culprits that managed to piss him off. Those always went missing or more often than not, ended up in some sort of mental coma where they could never hurt anyone else again. When it came to anything that resembled hostage negotiations, the blonde was the go to person. The kidnappers usually never had enough time to regret it before going insane.

A few medical reports had been published on the blonde's _'victims'_. Coma, unresponsive to any external stimulation, open eyed sleep, minimal external activity, no signs of life whatsoever other than the bare necessities and the occasional horrified screaming or twitching. There was only one anomaly and it was common to all the victims. The victims' brain activities registered as if the person was still alive and active at all hours of the day, even while sleeping which was unnatural since a human brain usually could only take so much stress before breaking.

Which come to think about it was probably the point.

He had other kinds of missions of course, Fate couldn't help a snort, bulldozing through a standing army that was threatening to cause a rebellion like so much wet paper whilst armed with nothing but a spoon and chopsticks usually had that kind of effect on people Fate supposed and apparently because of that, the blonde now had a standing Marriage proposal with the fourth Mundus Vetus magical leader's daughter as well. The blonde naturally got out of the country as fast as he could when he heard about it and swore never to return until the marriage contract was cancelled.

Nonetheless, someone with that kind of political and physical power wasn't likely to be overlooked as a threat. Mostly because, despite his eccentricities about hiding any information about himself; his main policies were well known. The chances of him standing by and watching a genocide, for it was a genocide in all but name no matter how prettily his bosses phrased it, take place were about as likely as a meteor falling out of the sky and bonking him on the head right now.

Meaning so tiny you'd need a microscope to see it.

Fate cocked his head; that wasn't the problem here; he had never been one to worry about the morality of his actions. Some would even say he didn't even have one to worry about in the first place.

But he didn't want to kill the interesting blonde. And that confused him, the last time he had felt so conflicted was when Shiori...

Still... orders were orders.

Fate lifted the cup and sipped from the cup before hiding a slight grimace at taste of the cold coffee.

******Broken Faith******

A fist moved as if in slow motion, before being halted by another fist, the contact resulted in another big shockwave. Both of them pulled back their fists and started another slow motion repeat before they blurred and were replaced by Naruto mid kick while the white haired man blocked it in slow motion.

Evangeline steadied herself as the slow shocks kept coming even as her squinted eyes stayed steady on the arena, the earth itself trembled as the two idiots on the stage continued to trade punch for punch in slow motion in one spot for the past 7 minutes. To everyone else, they saw the tall white haired man slowly move his body and punch in slow exaggerated motions, Naruto doing much the same, while elements swirled around them as if for no reason, a sudden stone spike or burst of fire would appear out of nowhere without reason. Or so it seemed to everyone else but the few that could actually see what was happening.

"Evangeline-sensei, wh-why does their movements look so weird? And so slow? One moment Naruto-nii san is about to get hit when suddenly they change into another position? Like a disjointed picture..." Negi questioned quietly.

Evangeline snorted, "Their movements aren't weird. You just can't see them."

Negi looked at her in confusion, "See them? What do you mean? They're right there, they haven't moved from that spot!"

Evangeline shook her head, "They've been moving around the arena, but they're moving so fast that you can barely see them. What are you're seeing is an after image."

"Ehh! Bu-but I should been able to notice it if just afterimages!"

"No. Not just afterimages. They are moving so fast their afterimages are nearly invisible. The disjointed movement you can see right now is the result of those invisible afterimages overlapping with another similar afterimage just enough to become visible." Evangeline squinted at the stage, "Naruto's doing good enough to keep up I suppose, but he's still losing."

"Ehh?"

"Shhh! Quiet! I want to see this properly."

******Stage******

Naruto ducked under a punch, it barely missed him but he still had to suppress a grunt as the air pressure from the attack hit him like a truck, twisting under the arm Naruto tried to grapple Rakan only for the huge mountain of a man to slam his elbow onto Naruto's collarbone.

A slight crunch rang out as the blonde ignored the sound of his collarbone fracturing and replied in kind with violent elbow smash into Rakan's gut that barely fazed the man. The both of them disappeared again, the sounds of bone and flesh smacking into more bone and flesh rang out around the arena before the two of them reappeared in the sky, Rakan's arms lifted above him and his fists clasped together in a double fisted hammer and quickly smashed the blonde into the ground violently. The blonde exploded out of the rubble and followed it up by quick hand seals that allowed him to spit a disturbingly large amount of sticky syrup at the falling man.

It drenched Rakan as he landed with a wet splat and immediately hardened into clear amber like stuff that was supposed to hold him in place.

It didn't work.

The hulking mountain of a man broke out with nothing but sheer force and barrelled into Naruto, only for the blonde to explode in a shower of electric sparks, momentarily paralysing him long enough for two feet to slam into him from above, driving his face into the ground. Rakan didn't even miss a beat as he grabbed the feet stepping on his head and lifted himself easily from the ground before swinging Naruto around like a bat before repeatedly smashing the dazed blonde into the concrete floor.

An eyebrow quirked as the blonde just lay there until a stone spike exploded from underneath, stabbing through the blonde's body which disappeared in a poof of smoke. Rakan grunted as he simply smacked the stone spike away like an irritating fly before swinging his huge arms around like a helicopter as even more stone spikes exploded from all around him. Suddenly the stone spike barrage stopped when Rakan lashed one huge fist out to his side in a powerful punch that slammed into Naruto's jaw before his elbow slammed Naruto into the ground, the stunned blonde hit the ground with an earth shaking smash before bouncing back into the air from the force of the elbow smash, allowing Rakan to flow into a powerful side kick as a finisher to his combo. The boy that called himself Naruto only managed a quiet 'Oof' of surprise before being blown completely out of the arena, smacking into the water like a comet and hitting the bottom with an unhealthy amount of force if the tremor he felt was any indication. Rakan didn't let his guard down though, he was faster and stronger than the frog eyed blonde, but the boy was tricky and shook off hits like a boss.

As expected, the blonde leapt out of the pool and landed a little unsteadily, rubbing an already healing bruise on his abs.

Naruto let out a quiet and resigned chuckle, "I can't win this can I?"

The huge man didn't even break a smile, he was rather disappointed despite the show of creativity and strength, having expected more from someone Albireo respected, "Of course not. You aren't even fighting properly. You fight like an assassin trying to be a normal person, or a normal person trying to be an assassin. How can you win if you can't even be yourself?" the hulking man scoffed out loud.

The blonde's mouth twisted into a bitter smile, "And what's wrong with an assassin trying to forget things better off forgotten?"

Rakan snorted, "I didn't say that. I just said be yourself, if you can't fight properly, I'll make you fight properly, I haven't had a good fight in a long time and I'm not going to lose the chance just because you want to be a pansy. I don't even know why Albiero respected you enough to call me out at this stage. Insult me and I couldn't care less, but the fact that you're not fighting properly is an insult to Albiero and people learn soon enough that insulting my friends is a different matter altogether." Rakan paused and thought for a while, "Unless I'm the one insulting them, then that's completely alright and even advisable..." He finished with a grin as he lifted one hand and directed his palm at a section of the audience.

"Wha-What are you doing?"

His palm started to glow, "Don't involve them! This is just an exhibition match! There's no need for something that!" Naruto desperately yelled as he scrambled forward to stop the attack in time, seeing the beam lance outward as if in slow motion.

A bright white beam lanced out from his palm and threatened to engulf the spectators but Naruto desperately threw himself in front of the beam and barely had time cross his forearms together as a make shift shield before the beam hit with all the force of a rampaging rhino, his hands burned badly but the blonde simply gritted his jaw, he had endured worse, and held out with all his power and roared back in defiance.

The stage shook as an earth shaking explosion took place, Rakan simply calmly stood and ignored the burning winds his explosion caused and watched the smoke cloud, knowing the boy was still alive, but it was still enough to make quirk an eyebrow at the sacrifice the boy had apparently made. The smoke finally cleared enough to show the boy, only this time he was completely topless and his arms and chest were burned badly as he panted, the giant absently noted that the boy's eyes had changed back into their original sapphire ones; presumably the boy had used up everything he had to stop that attack.

******Broken Faith******

Mana stumbled slightly and cursed as she accidentally allowed her classmates, Ayaka among them, through. Looking back at the arena she could see a mushroom cloud forming. "Hmph, if this keeps up, Chao won't have to do anything but sit back and watch as things go to hell in a hand basket." Mana muttered.

******Broken Faith******

Evangeline shook her head in disbelief; Rakan of all people had just tried to attack the innocent audience. What the hell?

******Broken Faith******

"Mama?" Akako shakily chirped from within the safety of her mother's arms after Chachamaru had thrown herself to the ground just in case Naruto hadn't been able to stop the blast and shielded Akako as best as she could.

"Shh... It's ok, Papa's dealing with the bad man."

Akako nuzzled against her cheek to try and comfort her mother before relaxing, complete and utter faith in her Papa's abilities.

******Broken Faith******

Asuna steadied herself as the latest piece of ceiling to fall chose to fall onto the robot that had just vaporised Mei and Takane's clothes. She looked up nervously at the ceiling, wondering what the hell was going on to cause the unending earthquakes.

******Broken Faith******

Takamichi grunted as the latest tremors dislodged the machine that was holding him and Chibi Setsuna captive, internally he thanked Naruto for helping them even if he didn't know it, allowing him enough space to break both of them free. Turning back at the small floating Setsuna he motioned, "Come on, we have to go help Asuna-san and the rest. I can sense them on the way here."

******Stage******

Rakan's eyebrow lifted further as the blonde's eyes shifted from blue and slit pupiled into indigo blue with concentric rings.

The panting blonde stepped forward, "What the hell was that for? Why did you try to hurt them? They had nothing to do with this!"

His opponent merely stared at him impassively, annoying him even further, Naruto clenched his jaw and threw his hands out, _"Tenkuu no Tenbin!"_

The broad shouldered man simply shrugged it off as the gravity around him increased tenfold and shot off another of his lasers, Naruto's purple eyes widened and he quickly formed hand seals again before slamming his palms into the ground, _"Kuchiyose: Sanjou Tenkuumon!"_

Three gigantic wall-like gates with angelic decorations exploded from the ground and the first door with a beautiful angel on the front halted the laser briefly, Naruto grunted as the laser exploded and penetrated the first door with a huge explosion that the second door briefly withstood before cracking, causing Naruto to fall to his knees with another grimace. This technique was a bastardization of the one Orochimaru had, or to be more accurate Orochimaru had corrupted the original summoning that Naruto had found and as such Orochimaru's had different properties, far cheaper to summon but less powerful in terms of defence. The chakra requirement of the original alone was nearly double of the one belonging to Orochimaru and had a continuous drain on his core. But it was still his most powerful defensive technique and each door was on par with one of Gaara's Shukaku statue shields.

Forcing himself to his feet, Naruto released the jutsu and the two remaining gates collapsed back into the ground. The blonde exploded out of the smoke and charged Rakan head on in anger, ducking under one punch Naruto slammed his forehead to Rakan's , making eye contact and immediately drove a mental spike into the man's mind.

Both of them stilled face to face, brief grimaces that flitted across their faces were the only signs they were still alive.

Then the grimaces stopped and Evangeline looked on in shock, shaking it off, she immediately looked around and found the person she was looking for, she grabbed Chachamaru and Negi by the shoulder roughly before teleporting them both beside her target, accidentally taking a happily squeaking Akako along.

"Eeek!"

Negi looked around in confusion, "Nodoka? Err, sensei what are we doing here?"

"No time, girl!"

"Ha-hai!"

"Bring out your artefact now!"

Nodoka took one look at the smaller girl's expression and immediately did as requested without argument, Evangeline pulled all of them closer and forced them to make skin contact with her, eliciting another squeak from Nodoka before she herself placed a palm on Nodoka's _Diarum Ejus_ and all five of them went still.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto looked around in confusion, usually when he used that particular technique he would be transported into the target's mindscape where he would find and manipulate the target's memories but the blonde realized something had gone extremely wrong as he found himself looking at a replica of the Konoha Tower.

He looked around at the familiar scenery and even saw the Hokage Cliff where the faces of all five Hokage's were carved into the stone wall, he had never personally accepted Danzou and Kakashi as the sixth and seventh respectively and that was presumably the reason why only five faces were displayed there.

"Ho? This is interesting... You were capable of something like that?"

Naruto spun around in alarm, "Yo-you!"

Rakan casually appeared out of a dark alley and walked to the opposite side of the square in front of Hokage Tower, "Yes me." He calmly replied as the blonde tensed and moved his burned hands into a defensive stance.

He didn't need to ask what had happened, his technique only worked if his willpower was stronger than his target and he had enough chakra to subdue said target and if this happened then there was no question that his opponent was far stronger mentally and physically than him.

"This is pretty interesting, the old granny has something like this as well, do you have a name for this technique?"

Naruto allowed himself a grimace and a shake of the head; he had never named this technique. Partly because he didn't think it deserved one, and partly because he didn't like it. He only used it against those that deserved it.

"What do you want Rakan? I already gave up, so why are you still fighting? To the point you even tried hurting innocents!"

"And I won't let you give up because of that." the man calmly replied.

"Why not!"

Rakan stomped his foot like a child, "Because it ain't fair!"

Naruto's eyes bugged out, "Huh? Wahaa?"

Rakan pointed at him accusingly, "You got Albiero's gravity magic and annoyingness, you think and act like Gateau, like some cool older person, you fight and look like Nagi, like a tricky bastard, even your sword skills are almost on par with Eishun! It's not fair! You're like a walking Ala Rubra in miniature! Only you don't resemble me in any way at all! So I want to force you to learn how to fight without thinking again, without being restricted by stupid stuff like calculations. Like me! Well... maybe not as awesome..."

Naruto's eyebrow started twitching violently and his fingers started curling around an imaginary neck.

Preferably Rakan's.

Rakan started cooing to some imaginary baby, "Then we can call you mini Rubra, and pet you, and feed you."

A vein popped and started ticking.

"I'll even teach you how to steal panti-"

"Gah! DIE!"

It was Evangeline's turn for her eyebrows to start twitching violently at the great Rakan started rolling around in the dirt with Naruto like two children fighting over a toy.

"Gyah! Enough! If you're just going to play around I'm getting out of here!" Naruto yelled angrily only for Rakan to suddenly flash forward from the ground. Stunned by the taller man's sudden change in attitude, Naruto's eyes widened and he barely managed to duck an arm swipe that had enough power to throw him to the moon. Roaring the blonde leapt forth from his crouched position and barrelled into Rakan's torso, slamming him into a building with enough force to cause it to collapse.

The sounds of people fighting emanated from inside the dust cloud before a black and yellow blur was violently kicked out of the cloud and smacked loudly into the Hokage Tower, ignoring the screaming of his every muscles, the blonde pushed off the wall and sped towards the hulk who was calmly walking towards him and engaged Rakan in another grand melee.

Sage Mode was already useless and the man destroyed any clones he made before they could get away to gather nature chakra.

Naruto desperately fought the huge man as hard as he could but every jutsu and every trick was batted away like so much wet paper as he felt the last of his reserves draining away. His movements slowed and he knew he had suffered a concussion somewhere along the road as he was having trouble focusing on the huge man. A high kick to the face threw him clear through five buildings before the blonde landed roughly and rolled limply on the ground in a groaning mess; behind him were the edges of Konoha. The clearing was empty, ringed by desolate buildings and a sheer rock wall which constituted the Hokage Cliff. The only thing of note was the one solitary tree at the very bottom of the wall.

Groaning again, the blonde tried to lift himself up only for a foot to land on his back and crush him back into the ground.

"Now do you know why you can't win? Why I won't let you give up?

The foot flipped him around before a fist drove itself into his gut with insane force, causing the blonde to cough up blood.

"I said it already; you can't win because you are pretending to be something you're not." The foot kicked him into the air roughly before Rakan drop kicked him into another building. Naruto staggered out, a blur appeared in front of him and the blonde barely had enough time to bring up his hands in order to block an incredibly strong kick.

He winced as he heard his bones crack and his body was slammed into a wall by the force of the kick. He shook his head clear of the pain and realized he was pinned between Rakan's foot and the wall.

"Wha-what the hell does that mean dammit!" He yelled out.

**Play Pokemon OST – Lugia's Song**

Rakan shook his head and Naruto's blurred vision barely noticed the pitying expression on his face. "Judging from the way you fight, you were never meant to be an assassin in the first place, it's like you forced yourself to be one and later on, either didn't want to, or didn't know how to get out off."

He paused and punched Naruto deeper into the crevice of the wall, "I don't know you but I can tell from your fists, you were an honest person. *Smack* you were someone with ideals and probably had an impossibly high dream as well. *Punch* People probably called you naive, called you stupid. You didn't care, all you had was your dream, but that was enough. *Kick* You probably trusted people and loved them even if they didn't love you back."

Rakan paused and let the bloodied blonde think for a few moments before continuing, "Then something probably happened. Something so bad, that you wanted revenge for it no matter what. You took the fastest short cut. You lost yourself in anger. You became an assassin or something, I don't know and I don't care. Point is you become something you weren't. You became calculative, cunning, and powerful enough that you started winning all the time. Don't get me wrong, that's not necessarily a bad thing, no one called you naive or weak anymore but in return **you lost something**. Even now you smile to people around you, but you don't trust them until you have enough contingency plans in place that it wouldn't matter if they betray you, am I right? Like I said, you think too much, unlike me." He added rather unnecessarily after some thought. "In some weird way, that knowledge, that wisdom has limited you; it restrained you from hoping for those miracles that you used to create on a daily basis."

Rakan smirked, "Now, the only thing stopping you, is you."

Naruto barely managed to lift his head and spat out a reply, "Stop talking like you know everything!" Spinning around and throwing off the foot, the blonde charged at the taller man, blinding him mid leap with a flash of light before driving down a huge slightly cracked sword that appeared out of nowhere. Jack didn't even flinch and blocked the claymore's descent with a sword of his own, a huge two bladed thing that looked like a cross without moving an inch, Naruto spun and pivoted into a side swipe which was deflected.

"You try being called stupid, called pathetic. You try having someone you called a friend betray you, hurt you. I didn't give up even though I was called naive and an idiot. I had four chances to kill him because I wasn't powerful enough to subdue him, but I didn't because he was my friend. FOUR fucking chances!" Naruto thrust his blade into Rakan's torso but it was deflected by another blade that the man pulled out of a flash of light, "Because I was too weak to take it. Too weak to stop him, too weak to kill him, I lost everything." Naruto screamed loudly as he wildly slashed at Rakan, "Because of that I lost my wife, the person I loved died, my surrogate mother, my teacher stabbed me in the back! You try stay being innocent and naive after something like that!"

"SO DON'T TALK LIKE YOU KNOW ME!"

A huge clang reverberated among the destroyed buildings and Naruto's blade was flung away from the force of Rakan's slash, a fist drove into his gut and an elbow slammed him into the ground hard enough to create a crater. Naruto groaned tiredly into the ground.

Rakan lifted the limp blonde by the neck.

"Why won't you just let me repent in peace?" Naruto weakly said.

"Because it's fun." Rakan replied just as lowly and threw him towards the rock cliff where the blonde rolled down the slope before his back came to rest against something that felt rough but cool against his burnt skin.

Naruto blearily looked up and saw brown bark; his eyes went further to see a piece of white ceremonial cloth wrapped around the middle of the tree trunk, even higher were pink leaves blowing in the wind.

A sakura tree.

One finger accidentally touched the tree and a memory floated out of the tree, Naruto watched it, utterly fascinated.

**Flashback**

_A 15 year old Naruto sat underneath a Sakura tree fiddling with a piece of paper in his hands. In front of him was a titanic fox sitting in a cage._

_The fox was clearly curious but had too much pride to ask what his jailer was doing and had been doing for the past 8 hours._

"_Yatta! I got it dattebayo!"_

_A loud rumble from the kitsune signalled the end of his patience, "What are you doing?" it roared out loudly. The gust of wind kicked up by the roar sent the boy tumbling head over heels before crashing into the cliff._

"_Tch, you could learn to be more polite you know, I was doing this for you!" Naruto yelled back after he had gotten up and dusted himself off._

"_Huh?" the kitsune looked at the small boy curiously "Me?"_

"_Nyehehe! Just watch the awesomeness of Naruto Uzumaki dattebayo!" the blonde walked up fearlessly to the cage and lifted the piece of paper up slowly, the kitsune's slowly widened as he saw what the blonde was doing, "Wha-what are you doing idiot! If you mess with the seal like that who knows what will happ-"_

_He was cut off in a flash of brilliant light as Naruto stuck his paper on top of the seal that kept the titanic fox locked inside Naruto's stomach._

_His big ruby eyes wrenched shut from the flash, Kyuubi slowly waited for something, pain, burning, something that signalled that the boy had obviously failed. _

_He got nothing._

_One eyelid slowly peeled back and shifted around, seeing trees and boulders. Nothing had changed. The other eyelid peeled back now that the fox was sure it was safe. His frustrations slowly built as he realized the idiot blonde had been fucking around with the seals and looked around for a target to unload his wrath upon._

_His found his target laid out on the ground unconscious, he didn't stop to think but leap on Naruto and try to scratch him while roaring. He didn't realize the boy was suddenly far bigger than him, or that his roaring had become angry squeaking. It didn't take long for Naruto to wake up from the signals of pain his face was sending to his brain. _

"_Ouch, Ouch! Stop that!"_

"_Stop that? Now you say stop that! What would you do if we both died after you messed around with the seal?"_

"_It didn't fail!" Naruto yelled back._

_That caused Kyuubi to paused dramatically and stared at his paw, before looking up at a widely grinning blonde._

"_What... did you do? How did you make me smaller?"_

"_I didn't make you smaller; I brought you out of the seal... Well sort off, hehehe." Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly._

"_Wha...wha- whatttt?"_

"_Look around."_

_The tiny fox did as requested; it even cutely pawed at the ground and sniffed the overturned fresh earth before looking back at the blonde with a weirdly stoic expression on its muzzle, "Why?"_

_Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "Why what?"_

"_Why did you let me out? I'm the Kyuubi, the thing that nearly destroyed Konoha, the one that caused your miserable excuse of a childhood. Why?"_

_Naruto's wide smile suddenly softened. _

"_**Because you are Kyuubi. My one and only true friend."**_

_**...**_

_**...**_

_**..**_

**End Flashback**

Tears started to fall as the memory dispersed into floating particles that were blown away by the wind as he heard the sound of footsteps approached him but stopped a few yards away.

This Sakura tree... were his most precious memories of her.

"It's true, I don't know how it feels to experience something like that, and I wouldn't know what to do either but is that what she wanted?"

He pointed at the floating bubbles of memories.

"That's what you lost."

"You forgot how to dream."

"You forgot how to trust.

"And most of all, you forgot how to hope."

He lifted his palms with two large glowing orbs floating in front of them, "Ask that tree, would she approve of what you have become? Now... learn how to dream, how to trust and most importantly how to hope again."

Naruto struggled and managed to crawl forward while propping himself on his elbows, "St...stop... you can hurt me," he managed to get to his knees, "But not this tree, these are my memories of her. Please... please stop..."

Tears fell onto the back of his clenched fists as the ground rumbled from the amount of power Rakan was releasing.

"I said stop..."

The beam launched.

"**STOOOOPP!"**

Evangeline closed her eyes sadly and turned away, unable to watch as Naruto took the hit head on and the entire place was rocked by the explosion, Nodoka stifled a strangled gasp and Chachamaru watched, determined to learn everything she could about the blonde, Akako struggled in her grip, trying to get to her Papa, squeaking in anger while Negi wiped his tears away but never stopped watching with determined eyes.

"Nii-san is alright!"

"Papa!"

Evangeline's eyes snapped open, "Where?"

A shadowy blur slowly become visible amongst the two story high flames that licked the sky. The weird cliff with the faces was already completely blown away.

In the midst of that sea of flames two shadows become clear.

One was Naruto with his head down and his hair shadowing his eyes as he slowly stood up, completely ignoring the flames.

The other was his Sakura tree, standing tall and healthy despite the flames.

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me From Hell**

For a moment Negi thought something was wrong with his eyes as he watched a shadowy, blurry apparition of a beautiful woman with pinkish red hair floated behind Naruto with her arms wrapped around his neck.

Negi rubbed his eyes and the apparition was gone.

Naruto looked up to pierce Rakan with a clear eyed stare, clear tears fell unheeded down his cheeks as he heard the sound of chains shattering, his attention shifted up into the blue sky.

"Remind me Akane," he gently whispered to no one.

_A short spiky haired blonde yelled at a masked silver haired scarecrow, "And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!"_

A slight gesture of his wrist caused an awesome shockwave to emanate from his body, the shockwave completely snuffed out any flames with impunity.

_The same short blonde boy angrily glared a scarred man wearing a bandana down,_ "_Screw you!_ _Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You're not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I DO get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday!"_

The tall white haired man finally gave Naruto a smile for the first time they had started fighting; "Now... you are someone worth fighting."

_A short blonde, blue eyed boy crawled on the ground, beaten up and hurt, he still managed to growl out at a scared red head with the kanji for love tattooed on his head, "It's almost unbearable, isn't it…? The pain of being all alone. I know that feeling, I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up, I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself, they rescued me from my loneliness, they were the first to accept me as who I am. They're my friends."_

A burnt hand lifted up slowly and a bluish green orb slowly formed,_ "Rasengan Niigata: Rasenshuriken."_

A screeching sound overwhelmed everybody present, causing them to cover their ears; Chachamaru covered Akako's cute fluffy fox ones and muted her own ears, before with a simply flick of his wrist Naruto sent the huge screeching orb careening towards Rakan, the tall man immediately leapt away before Naruto stomped his foot, somehow causing four huge pillars made of lightning to explode out of the ground and Rakan crashed into some sort of invisible wall before a snap of his burnt fingers caused the screeching orb to explode outwards, engulfing Rakan inside the lightning barrier.

It didn't take long for the man to burst out of the barrier with a huge amount of scratches visible on his body, wildly looking around for Naruto, he was surprised when two hands burst out of the ground and grabbed his feet before another blonde appeared out of nowhere below him in a handstand before springing upwards and kicking his chin with both feet. Rakan sailed into the air and was dog piled by a huge amount of clones that all exploded in around him an awesome display of fireworks; electricity, fire and water. The explosion threw him higher and higher before he felt arms wrapping around his torso. Grunting Rakan elbowed the person behind him before more clones appeared out of nowhere and before he knew it, he was fighting hard to defend himself from the aerial dog pile from every direction, restraining him as much as possible.

Another Naruto, high above Rakan held out his palm for another orb to form, this one a deep red, orangey red splotches occasionally flared across its surface, _"Rasengan Niigata: Taiyo no Bakuhatsu". _Seemingly disregarding his own safety, the blonde rocketed downwards with the enlarging miniature sun held in front of him like a shield.

The observers watched from afar as the red orb which was as huge as a building with a small black speck holding it, slowly slammed into the distraction clones and Rakan alike and they all hit the ground before an incredible heatwave and implacable rumbling emanated from ground zero where a huge brilliant orangey, reddish white dorm slowly expanded, swallowing everything in its path although everything started to melt long before the dome reached them.

The dome completely swallowed fully one quarter of the original Konoha before receding, leaving nothing behind but an unblemished glass crater.

A cracking sound echoed in the newly formed canyon. It was quiet before another one rang out and a small crack formed in the middle of the crater. The tinkling sounds of cracking glass got louder and more frequent as the cracks spread, a slightly burnt Rakan with his hair cut short, or burnt off, suddenly exploded from the ground in a shower of tinkling glass with one last powerful blow and landed outside, gasping for air, "Damn. That was one helluva an attack. If I hadn't dug myself deep underground, I probably would've been fried into a crisp."

"Those are only the second stage. There's one more." A disembodied voice rang out, causing Rakan to look around wildly, "The technique originally belonged to my father, the first stage Rasengan. I improved them into the second stage by adding an element to the standard non elemental Rasengan orbs. Then I realized one thing about them. Wind Element cuts, but the original Rasengan grinds, adding the element only added more cutting power of the grinding. Lightning element added a piercing effect that conflicted with the grinding. So I changed the form of the original Rasengan."

"Rasengan Saishu Genkai : Ame no Nuboko."

Rakan's eyes widened and immediately bent over backwards, barely avoiding a flash of blue, "The Ame no Nuboko; Izanagi's spear. By forming a spiralling spear instead of a sphere and adding the Lightning element to it, the spiralling spear's piercing/drilling is power enhanced even further by the piercing power and speed of Lightning."

Rakan began to jump around, desperately avoiding the blue flashes that he could barely see moving at the speed of light and left huge trenches and holes whenever they passed or hit the ground.

"I don't even need to throw them too hard, the electrical properties of this jutsu causes the thrown spear to act like a rail gun."

Rakan rapidly back flipped, danced, bent and skidded around the blue flashes that fell like extremely dangerous hail before something tripped him. Rakan immediately regained his balance and managed to kick the person that had tripped him away before grinding to a halt before looking up, only to find himself staring down the business end of a bright neon, bluish white, violently sparking javelin that looked like Naruto had reached into the clouds, grabbed a thunderbolt from the heavens themselves and commanded them with god-like impunity.

_A taller blonde, still with the same clear blue eyes, stared down a person who declared himself God. An incredibly thin red head with purple eyes with concentric rings around the pupil stuck in some sort of crab like chair with black spikes poking out of his back, "If you can't trust in the world, then put that trust in me. I will break that curse in your place. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up." _

_**That was the last time he remembered having such clear and unclouded eyes….**_

The spear thrust forward and Rakan spun around, barely avoiding the spear and swung his blackened sword. Naruto used his bright blue miniature thunderbolt like a makeshift sword to defend himself from a huge cracked and blackened cross of a sword in a shower of sparks and the two of them danced back and forth in a pockmarked field of broken glass in a weird dance of blades.

Every time the blades clashed, it ignited the air around them in a loud ringing and shower of sparks.

The two of them landed on opposite sides of the crater sporting multiple wounds, Naruto steadied his blazing sword as Rakan stared at his badly chipped and blackened blade before hefting it onto his shoulder with a casual grin.

"Let's end this."

Naruto grinned, as if signalling his readiness the sparking javelin started to increase in size and it's sparking intensified violently. Both of them started calmly walking towards each other, each step cracking glass underfoot, slowly increasing in speed before with a roar both of them charged each other simultaneously.

With all the force of two freight trains hitting each other, the final explosion of light signalled the ending of the fight between the two panting titans.

The blade of the sword that resembled a cross had been broken off but still managed to stab through Naruto's torso while the sharp end of a blazing blue sparking javelin pierced Rakan's chest, a few centimetre's short of his heart.

Both of them coughed up blood and grinned.

"Heh, not bad."

And the mindscape shattered like glass.

Rakan, Naruto, Evangeline, Chachamaru, Akako, Nodoka and Negi were all violently thrown back into the real world.

Naruto's real body pitched forward in exhaustion before being steadied by one huge arm. The blonde turned one tired blue eye at the giant and barely managed to whisper one word, "Why?"

The giant smirked slightly, "I don't know you, I don't care about you, but Albeiro thought you were worth something, so I simply tried to make his prediction come true. That was a good fight. I hope you can fight the original soon now that you're worth something."

Naruto chuckled tiredly and closed his eyes, ignoring the shouting from the red headed reporter from his class and Rakan poofing into a panting, struggling Albiero.

Evangeline staggered back from the book while Negi steadied Nodoka. Chachamaru stumbled a bit while Akako changed into her human child form mid leap from her grip and sped towards the arena where her father was being helped onto a stretcher.

All of them looked up at where Naruto had fallen asleep and Evangeline smirked as she dropped her barrier causing a slight look of daze to pass on everyone present without magical awareness before they all shook themselves and refocused on the tournament, they would remember it was flashy but not enough to remember exactly what had happened, "That wasn't bad at all. He nearly won."

Negi grinned widely as he watched the blonde being carted away with a happily squealing that her father was alright Akako buried her face into his chest while the blonde faintly smiled and stroked her hair with closed eyes, "Yeah! Nii-san was pretty cool."

******Broken Faith******

"Fueeh..." He tried to raise a hand to block out the light filtering through his eyelids that was amplifying his headache but someone stopped him from moving too much and laid a piece of wet cloth over his eyes.

"You feeling better?"

"Papa!"

Forcing himself to extend his senses as his hand automatically went to calm Akako down by petting her hair, he tried to identify the speaker, "Chi-chizuru-san?"

"You were pretty out of it."

"Wha-what happened? Last I remember... Oh yeah, the fight with Rakan and Albiero..." the hand flopped onto his eyes and a small smile played on his lips, "Whe-where am I?"

A new voice spoke, "In a private hospital next to the arena, I didn't want anybody you didn't know going near you so I forced them to bring you to a private one. I shouldn't have bothered though, you weren't hurt too bad physically; most of your injuries even healed almost immediately but that last hit did a lot of damage mentally. I'm surprised you didn't become a brain dead vegetable." Evangeline commented idly.

The blonde on the bed snorted quietly, "Wouldn't be the first time someone called me stupid in big words."

"Hmph, you ARE stupid. Case closed."

The sound of cloth shifting caused Naruto to perk up, "Is there someone else here?"

"Your visitors, I take it you're healthy enough to take more abuse?" Eva-chan said with amusement.

"Huh?"

In reply the vampire simply grinned an evil grin while Naruto extended his abused senses even further and groaned as he felt the people in the room, "I'm so dead aren't I?" He muttered quietly to himself.

Other than Evangeline and Akako, he could sense Konoka, Chizuru, Mana and Ayaka all gathered in the room. Peeking under the piece of cloth slightly, he confirmed what he sensed in addition to the varying degrees of stoic expressions on their faces. He absently noted that Asuna wasn't there while Konoka was leaning on the wall beside Evangeline on the far side of the room with a smirk on her face, ready to watch the fun begin. Mana stood by the door watching silently, Ayaka quietly fidgeted on a chair beside Mana while the Chizuru had taken the seat beside the bed and had been the one to tend to him while he rested.

Naruto propped himself on the wall as best he could with a giggling Akako on his chest, "Yo!"

Chizuru moved first, "Yo, my foot!" ***Slap***

"Gah! Chizuru!"

She stood back and gestured for her two companions to say what they want.

Mana silently stepped forward and swung her palm as well. ***Slap***

"Ok... I deserved that as well..." Naruto whimpered quietly as he massaged his glowing cheeks, as he watched the dark skinned mercenary step forward, "A-Ayaka? I'm already hurt." he whimpered piteously and he looked at the only person he thought would sympathise with him, Konoka, pleadingly.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Ayaka growled and started to pummel the idiot on the bed, "Gah! OK OK, I get I was wrong! Stop hitting me! Ow!"

The bed ridden blonde groaned at the two black eyes he received to match his two glowing cheeks as Ayaka stepped back with a huff and crossed arms.

Akako giggled harder.

"Stop giggling you! You're getting too heavy!"

Akako pouted cutely at her father.

Eva simply smirked wider at the back of the room Mana spoke in her usual quiet tone, "You owe us for scaring us like that Namikaze. You even took on someone like Rakan like it was a joyride. I thought you were smarter than that."

Naruto frowned, "Hey! You can't really blame me for something like that, I don't know who Rakan was or is. Besides I can't just back down whenever I'm fighting someone more powerful than me, that's not right for a guy!" Naruto protested desperately, "Plus that wasn't really my fault. He wouldn't let me give up."

Mana's lip curled slightly, "I don't care. You still owe us." She said evenly while the others nodded approvingly.

Naruto sighed and realized that trying to win an argument against the female half of his species was probably an exercise in futility no matter **how** valid his reasons were. So he resorted to the wisest/smartest possible thing a man in his current position could do at the time.

He grovelled and begged.

He tried to grovel as pitifully as he could on a bed, "Alright, alright, I get it. I was wrong. I shouldn't have made you all worry so much so please tell your humble servant what he can do to make it up to all of you?"

An awkward silence filled the room at his declaration as all three girls shared a glance before Chizuru filled it by stepping forward authoritatively with a sly smile, "As punishment for scaring all of us here, you will be sentenced to accompanying us for the festival tonight. I don't care how but if you don't, we'll simply assume you don't care that you made us worry."

"Me too!"

Chizuru glanced back at Konoka before adding carefully, "Alright, Konoka too."

"H-huh? Al-all of you?" one eye watched Ayaka carefully, not wanting her to know about magic even if she probably still thought it was CG.

Mana quietly stared at Chizuru with a hint of disbelief but seemed to accept it easily enough while Ayaka sputtered incredulously, "I don't care about an idiot like him! Besides how can he accompany all three of us?"

"That's up to him but don't you want him to apologize by being your servant for tonight?"

Ayaka blushed and spluttered a bit longer before turning to point at the blonde that was still massaging his cheeks with a regal finger, "The only reason I'm agreeing to this is because you owe me an apology alright! There's no other reason!" before stomping out of the room.

Meanwhile Chizuru and Mana smirked at each other almost challengingly before leaving the room.

Naruto sighed in relief as the awkward tension in the room left the same time as the three of them and started to pet a still pouting Akako in apology while Konoka moved to take Chizuru's former chair beside him on the bed, petting Akako as well. She smiled brightly at the both of them and nuzzled back.

"So? How long has it been since I blacked out? I remember trying to dive into Rakan's mind but either something went wrong or Rakan overpowered me. We fought and then the mindscape failing and kicking us back into reality but that's about it."

"Not too long, just about 45 minutes I think, despite your mental injuries you were healed even after 30 minutes barely passed." Evangeline said.

"Probably because your head is so incredibly hard," Konoka added cheekily before pausing at a knock at the door. All of them in the room fell silent and after a while the door creaked open enough for a brown eye to peek in.

When the person saw that Naruto was in the room, the door opened wider to let a girl in an elaborate chinese costume with her hair braided into two buns walk in.

"Chao-san?" Naruto voiced the question everyone else was thinking.

"Naruto-san, Konoka-san, Evangeline-san, Akako." The chinese girl greeted everybody quietly.

"Can we er... help you?"

The chinese girl looked up with a smile, but Naruto noticed a brief flash of... guilt and concern? flash across her face, "No, no.. .I'm the organizer of this event, I just felt a little guilty that one of the contestants was hurt so badly under my watch."

Wait... the barrier didn't affect her? Either she had only been watching a video feed which was unlikely, or she knew about magic. Something nagged at the back of the blonde's mind.

"I see..." Naruto carefully said, "I thank you for your concern."

Then to his surprise Akako climbed down the bed and toddled over to Chao.

The girl seemed to be surprised for a moment before her smile resumed and she bent down to hug the small girl.

Akako squealed happily and clambered into Chao's embrace, nuzzling the chinese girl happily. That alone raised one of Naruto's eyebrow, he hadn't known that they even knew each other, Akako was very reserved in front of adults she didn't know or those Naruto didn't personally vouch for. For one she hated Albiero. Although that might be because the idiot kept stealing her candy whenever he thought Naruto wasn't looking. That was more of a joke and Albiero teasing the kitsune though, since he always let Akako bite him afterward, sort of like an elder fox pup helping the younger ones during their teething?

Chao cooed at the happy girl before setting Akako down, "Here, I have a present for you."

Akako cooed back happily as Chao removed a jade green hair stick that kept her hair in buns before gently and softly looping Akako's long hair around into one similar bun with a practiced hand and pinning it together with the stick. The jade green contrasted with Akako's fire red hair nicely.

"Thank you!" Akako squealed before hugging the chinese girl tightly.

Chao smiled softly at Akako before whispering quietly enough that no one else heard her, "That's the pin you gave me Akako-nee san. Remember to give it back to me in the future."

Akako turned confused ruby eyes on the chinese girl, but Chao simply smiled and bid the rest good bye before swiftly leaving the room before Naruto could thank her.

The three adults shared a confused glance before Konoka shrugged and brought out a small mirror for Akako to admire her new pin. As she held the mirror up, the princess seemed to realize something, "That reminds me. Negi's match should almost be over by now. Shouldn't we get going for the ending ceremony?"

"Eeeh! I totally forgot! I wanted to watch that!" Evangeline started before dashing forward and grabbed Naruto out of bed before dragging the blonde out of the room with her, "Ow! Ow! Injured person here!" Naruto's pleading was completely ignored by the vampire, while Konoka picked Akako up and followed the two blondes with a Cheshire smile. Chao completely forgotten.

******Broken Faith******

**Play SCANDAL - Secret Base - Kimi ga Kureta Mono **

"**Eight!"**

"**Nine!"**

"**TEN! Contestant Albiero is the winner!"**

Nagi Springfield waved cheerfully at the screaming crowd before turning back to the shorter red head, "It's time Negi. It was good seeing you."

"Wha-what are you talking about?"

Nagi drew a calming breath and smiled, "Since Albiero used his Pactio to summon a copy of me, it probably means that the real me is dead. But I'm happy just seeing you Negi even though I can't do anything for you. Just seeing how big you've grown makes me really happy for some reason."

Negi felt tears threaten to fall, "Yo-you're not dead Otou-san!"

"Eh?"

"Yo-you came back 6 years ago on that snowy day to save me and Onee-san!"

Nagi grinned, "I see... So there's still hope. I hope the original is as prou-"

"NAGI! You bastard!" someone interrupted them with a yell.

"Eh?" both Springfields turned to look at the newcomer with similar confused expressions on their faces.

Nagi spoke first, "Who are you?"

"Evangeline-sensei?"

That startled Nagi, "Huh?" he pointed at Evangeline, "That's your sensei?"

Negi nodded excitedly, Nagi turned back to look at the vampire, "Evangeline? As in Evangeline McDowell? Why are you so small?"

Evangeline immediately steamed and tried to hit him, "I am not small! And if I am it's because of your stupid curse!"

"Eh... Oh... OHH! I totally forgot to lift that curse! I was really worried that I left without lifting it!" Nagi said as he stopped the small vampire from hitting him by putting one hand on her head so her shorter limbs couldn't reach him.

She averted her eyes and tried to inconspicuously nuzzle into the hand on her forehead as she mumbled something quietly.

Nagi bent lower with a smile, "Did you say something?"

Evangeline blushed harder before jerking a thumb over her shoulder, "That idiot already helped me lift most of it."

"Idiot...?" Nagi looked at where she was pointing and saw a pile of flesh and bright yellow hair behind Evangeline.

"Dammit, even if I'm healed, I'm still sore Eva-chan..."

Nagi got a weird expression on his face, "Neh, Negi... who is that?"

Negi looked at the pouting blonde, "That's Naruto-nii san. Why?"

Naruto stood up while grumbling at a smirking Evangeline when he noticed the strange red headed man that resembled Negi staring at him, "Yo! Yoroshiku. Do... Do I know you from somewhere?"

Nagi laughed brightly, "It's good to see both my sons looking so handsome."

Everyone present stared at him like he was crazy while Naruto slowly edged away from the crazy man, "I am **not **your son... you must be mistaken..." he said carefully.

"But your name is Naruto Springfield isn't it? It even starts with a 'N' like all the males in our family, you're as blonde as your mother was, you look like me and Negi even calls you nii-san!"

The blonde's eyebrow twitched, "No... My name is Naruto Namikaze... Negi doesn't call me that because I'm related by blood to him, my mother was a red head, and both my parents passed away already..." He was getting ready to run as soon as he reac... "Gak!"

Naruto ducked as a grinning Nagi jumped at him and tried to crabwalk away before a smirking Evangeline stepped on his cloak and prevented him from going anywhere, allowing a grinning Nagi to snag him by the collar.

Dragging a protesting Naruto by the collar to where a stunned Negi was standing he pulled the boy into a group hug, knocking Naruto and Negi's skulls together, "Ah! Don't sweat the small details! You look like my son if he was blonde so who cares if we're not blood related. I'll just adopt you," Nagi smiled softly, "I'm not insulting your parents, you can still love them but now you have another family to take care of you. No sweat!" Nagi grinned.

The shadow in Negi's memory had been wearing a hood so the Thousand Master's face hadn't been clear.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched harder as he took in the idiotically grinning Nagi's appearance in, "I take it yo-you're Nagi Springfi-?"

"Call me dad, like Negi does." Nagi interrupted him calmly.

"Bu-"

"Dad!"

"I'm older than you!"

"Fuck that, DAD!"

"Will you stop ignoring me?"

"Otou-chan works as well?"

Naruto sweat dropped at the red head's selective hearing and wondered how to get his point across until a timid voice snapped him out of his musings, "Nii-san... yo-you don't want to join my family?" Naruto looked down to see Negi's watery eyes and sighed before asking quietly, "How about Eva-chan? She's my little sister."

Evangeline blanched as she realized what Naruto was doing as payback for tripping him up.

"Eh? Blood related?"

"No."

Nagi grabbed Evangeline before she could run away without hesitation, the vampire squawked loudly as she was forced into the group hug, knocking all four skulls together, "Welcome to the family!" Nagi happily declared

"Geddof me you idiot!"

"If I suffer, you suffer."

Evangeline couldn't decide who she hated more at that moment.

All of them ignored Evangeline as Kazumi dropped down from her podium to take a photo. Nagi smiled proudly, his arms looped around Naruto, Negi and Evangeline. In the end she stopped struggling to get out of Nagi's grip around her neck, blushed, and averted her eyes as Kazumi's camera flashed.

Kazumi grinned and gave them a thumbs up.

Nagi stepped back and petted all three of them on the forehead, "It's time to go, I'm sorry about leaving so soon after doing this but this is just an illusion," he smiled sadly as he looked at all three of them, "Naruto, Evangeline, you two take care of each other and your little brother alright?"

The two of them shared a guilty glance before nodding.

Naruto and Nagi made eye contact briefly before Nagi knelt down in front of Negi. There was a slight note of pleading in his eyes that he knew the other two had not noticed.

"Negi, I hope you get as tall as Naruto when I see you again."

"I promise Dad."

Nagi waved energetically as a light array started to surround him, "When you find the original remember to make him officially adopt all of you. Even without me here you guys can depend on each other!"

Naruto nodded bit a bittersweet smile as he looped one arm around Evangeline and Negi's shoulder.

"Jaane!"

Negi started sobbing quietly while Evangeline tried to hide the fact that she was crying as well. They all watched Nagi as long as they could until the light got too bright and completely engulfed the grinning Thousand Master then they all looked away to shield their eyes.

The rumbling and lights obscured almost everything but the last thing they saw was Nagi mouthing, 'I love you all, see you soon.'

By the time they looked back, KuNel Sanders had taken Nagi's place. Negi buried his face into Naruto's cloak and tried to stop the tears unsuccessfully, prompting Naruto to pat his back soothingly. Evangeline looked she wasn't too far off either.

Kazumi stepped forward and tapped Negi's shoulder gently, causing the child teacher to stop crying and make eye contact with her. Kazumi smiled sadly and quietly whispered, "This belongs to you Negi-sensei."

Negi's tears stopped as he accepted the picture with shaking hands before clutching it to his chest.

"There's no need to cry Negi, your family is here."

Negi nodded absently in reply, his tears still fell but they were no longer those of sadness, as he continued to clutch the picture to his chest.

Naruto nodded at Kazumi in thanks before gently shepherding Negi and Evangeline to the podium to accept their prizes. Albiero silently joined them and Naruto silently thanked him for not doing anything stupid to ruin the moment with another nod. Albiero received first prize, Negi second while Naruto and Evangeline shared third prize. Konoka, Setsuna and Asuna were also given honourable mention and the 5 million yen to share amongst them.

Reporters immediately tried to crowd around the winners after the quick ceremony but were immediately halted in their tracks by a very intimidating glare from a purple eyed blonde. The more persistent ones managed to ignore the glare coming from said blonde until the glare was upgraded into a more powerful Killing intent. Everyone one of them froze, paralysed mid step, the weaker ones started vomiting.

Ignoring the reporters, Evangeline looked around them to ensure no one was watching before nodding in satisfaction and quietly teleported all of them back to her cabin unnoticed.

Once there, Naruto gently picked up a dazed Negi and tucked him into one of the guest rooms.

Walking back into the hall he found Evangeline staring out a window with a thoughtful expression and dropped into the couch opposite her. The room was filled with a comfortable silence until he quietly spoke, "That was a pretty interesting tournament wasn't it?"

The blonde's voice startled Evangeline, "H-hmm...? Ye-yeah... I guess it was. What are you doing to do now?" she replied just as quietly.

"I don't know. Walk around maybe. I still have to figure out how to apologise to Ayaka, Chizuru and Mana later."

"You mean dates." Evangeline replied idly.

"Apologies. That's all I can give them." Naruto stated evenly.

"Nii-san? Evangeline-sensei?" both of them turned around in surprise, not expecting Negi to be moving around so soon.

Naruto's brow furrowed in concern, "Negi? Shouldn't you be resting?" He motioned at Negi's arm, "You're still hurt from that match aren't you?"

Negi looked at his arm in confusion before replying "N-no... It's alright; you don't have to heal it... I can't rest yet, I still have to go meet up with the class. They wanted to celebrate my victory with some sort of tea ceremony. I don't want to let them down."

Naruto sighed, "I'll go with you and make sure you're alright." He glanced at Evangeline, "You coming?"

The vampire shook her head before staring absently out the window again, thinking of who knows what.

Naruto walked out of the cottage beside Negi quietly, "Pass me that picture. I'll take care of it for you."

Negi looked up in surprise and realized that he was still clutching the picture to his chest.

He stared at the picture that immortalized his family one last time. A grinning Nagi stood above them all, his hand looped around a half smiling Naruto, himself with an absolutely huge smile, in the middle was a blushing Evangeline with her eyes averted to the side.

Negi passed it to him reluctantly once he was done committing the picture to his memories. The blonde frowned slightly at the reluctance before kneeling down beside Negi who stopped and stared at him inquisitively. Naruto bite his thumb before gently pulling Negi's wrist closer and started drawing some sort of symbol on his wrist. Negi watched him draw a familiar symbol he had seen on the back of Konoka's neck on his wrist a few times before; when he was done Naruto grunted slightly, embedding the seal with his chakra, the rune that was drawn in still wet blood immediately solidified into some sort of black pattern on his skin. Placing the picture on top of the seal Naruto brought Negi's other palm and laid it on top of the picture.

"Push your magic into the picture, make sure the magic from that palm passes through the picture and makes contact with the surface of your skin underneath the picture where the seal is drawn." Naruto instructed.

A small poof of smoke appeared and the picture suddenly disappeared, startling Negi. Naruto simply grinned amusedly at the boy's reaction, "It's inside this containment seal now. Whenever you want to see it again just push more magic out like you just did."

Negi curiously tried as instructed and the picture reappeared with another poof of smoke.

The 10 year old teacher grinned and hugged Naruto around the neck in gratitude, muttering his thanks at the same time.

Naruto just smiled a lopsided smile and patted the boy's back.

"Come on, a gentleman must never be late to a date."

Negi grinned and jumped onto his brother's broad back before the blonde could walk away, "Gah! What are you doing?"

"Carry me?"

"What for?"

"Cause you're my real big brother now?"

Naruto grumbled although they both had small smiles on their faces as they walked off.

******Broken Faith******

**AN**

Tenkuu no Tenbin – Scales of Heavenly Balance

Kuchiyose : Sanjou Rashomon – Summoning : Triple Heavenly Gates

Rasengan Niigata : RasenShuriken – Spiralling Sphere Second Form : Spiralling Shuriken

Rasengan Niigata : Taiyo no Bakuhatsu – Spiralling Sphere Second Form : Exploding Sun

Rasengan Saishu Genkai : Ame-no-Nuboko – Spiralling Sphere Final Limit : Heavenly Jewelled Spear

**Was it good enough? This was the one fight I wanted to make sure everyone's jaw drop at, so to speak. If it works... hehehehe... **

**I hope the family moment at the end was satisfying as well. *I seem to be making a habit of trying to make as many people cry as possible don't I? On another note, those that recognize which anime Secret Base came from, I dare you not to cry. xD***


	22. I'll Make You Love Me

**Broken Faith 22**

**I'll Make You Love Me**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto and its variants belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Mahou Sensei Negima and its variants belong to Ken Akamatsu. Songs belong to their respective singers and publishers and I'm simply borrowing all of the above. **

**This chapter is released at the same time Chapter 353 of Mahou Negima Sensei went online near me as a commemoration of the 3****rd**** last chapter of a manga series that has lasted for nearly a decade and entertained millions.**

**Secondary Disclaimer : **The dates in this chapter. I have never and will never outright state what the official pairings are, outside of Asuna and Chachamaru and the future third girl. So bear in mind that these are just that, **dates**. Going on a date with Naruto once does **NOT immediately** constitute future wife, it's certainly possible of course but I doubt any of you married the first girl you dated in middle school, am I right? _**Love is unpredictable/confusing and while I definitely cannot do it perfectly I plan on doing my best to do just that for example the Naruto/Asuna situation which I know has baffled a lot of you**__. _

By now, after following this fic for 22 chapters, if you still haven't realized that isn't the way I like to do things then you probably need a few more grammar lessons on subtlety. Do note though, you can recommend any girl you like, anyway you like. I may not openly display it on a poll or something, but I **AM** keeping count and it **WILL** influence which girls that stand beside him during the Final Battle so to speak.

**Oh God save me! I went looking for romantic stuff for inspiration; I accidentally mixed up School Rumble and School Days. Oh God my eyes!**

**Soundtrack List**

Utada Hikaru – Beautiful World

Supercell/Ryo – Love & Roll

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Rap Is a Man's Soul (Short Start Edit)

******Broken Faith******

"Negi-sensei!"

"Argghhh!"

Naruto smirked as the 10 year old teacher kissed the floor after being dog piled by his classmates in marshmallow hell while he calmly got a good spot beside Chachamaru. Quietly he kissed her cheek while everyone was busy fawning over Negi, the gynoid's lips curled slightly and she settled down to make a cup of tea for Naruto.

"Papa!"

Naruto's head swung around and watched as a super adorable Akako walked out of the changing rooms with a smiling Konoka trailing behind the small girl, "Uah! Akako! You look so cute and grown up!"

The girl who was wearing a lavender kimono decorated with light pink blossoms, her hair tied with the jade green hair pin, twirled around happily before jumping into his arms while giggling cutely, "Eheheh! Kono-kaa san helped me change! Kawaii dessho!"

One eyebrow quirked at the change in honorific's for Konoka, he raised his eyes to see a blushing Konoka who was also wearing a beautiful traditional kimono with earthy colours, avert her eyes while Chachamaru seemed to be stifling an amused cough, Naruto simply smiled warmly at the two of them before accepting a cup of tea from Chachamaru who was wearing a beautiful pale green traditional kimono that enhanced her own beauty.

Meanwhile over with Negi... "Was that really your father?"

Negi blushed and scratched his head sheepishly, "Yeah... he was and was not I suppose."

"Ah... I see... so he was some sort of mask that KuNel Sanders guy was wearing? Then what was that about adopting Naruto-san and Evangeline-san?"

Most didn't come outright and say it but they were wondering why those two in particular were chosen; the two most solitary and standoffish people in their class.

Negi blushed harder, "Tha-that was real I guess. I don't have any siblings and uh..." Negi's mind raced, trying to find an acceptable story, "My father and their fathers were sort of friends but they were orphaned so I guess my father wanted to watch out for all of us at the same time?"

"Awwwww!"

Most attributed that to the reason why they were so standoffish and resolved to try involving them in class activities more. They would fail spectacularly. They all looked over their shoulders and found an incredibly... heart warming scene.

Akako was sitting on Naruto's lap, greedily sipping sweet tea from Naruto's cup before grimacing and sticking her tongue out cutely because she had accidentally burned it while her pseudo father tried not to let her burn her tongue anymore than that. Beside him Chachamaru and Konoka was chatting quietly. The blonde himself had somehow changed into a dark blue formal male kimono when no one noticed and currently had a soft smile on his face as he scolded the pouting Akako gently while his customary ponytail was curled around his neck like a scarf.

More than one girl felt her heart skip a beat.

"Mooeeeee..."

Negi slowly crawled away while the girls of 3-A were going to pieces over the fluffy scene and sat beside Naruto with a tired sigh. Naruto smirked at his adopted brother, "That's what you get for seducing so many girls."

"Naruto!" Chachamaru gently chided him.

Said blonde automatically replied with an amused smirk, "Sorry dear," before grinning at the younger male, "But you can't really blame me though; I wasn't saying anything wrong or false was I?"

Konoka giggled behind her folding fan daintily as the gynoid sighed in an exasperated manner common to wives all over the world, "It's alright Chachamaru," She pulled Negi who yelped in surprise onto her lap and cuddled him like a plushy, "You can't that deny he's adorable, isn't that right Akako?"

The small girl simply grinned brightly, not really understanding what the princess was saying; instead she clambered onto Naruto to mimic Negi's position on Konoka's lap and grinned proudly at the child teacher.

The blonde realized something and hid an evil grin, "Akako, do you know who that is?" he pointed at Negi.

Akako shook her head cutely, and Naruto's grin widened a little, "That's my little brother. Call him Negi-ojii san."

"Eeeeh?"

"Negi- ojii tan?" Akako said cutely.

Naruto shrugged, "Eh, close enough." Turning to Negi, he grinned, "Oi Negi, meet your new niece."

Konoka chuckled humorously while Negi paled at being called an uncle at the ripe old age of 10.

Chachamaru simply shook her head and their antics, but a small smile playing on her lips contradicted her apparent disapproval.

Akako squirmed in Naruto's lap so that she could point at Chachamaru, "Mama!" Naruto, "Papa!" Konoka, "Kono-kaa san!" Negi "Negi-ojii tan!" then she looked up at her father for approval. The blonde gave her an easy smile and a thumbs up while Negi laughed nervously, being expected to be a good teacher was bad enough, now he had to fulfil the expectations of an uncle?

Crap.

Akako snuggled back into her father's safe embrace and sighed happily.

Makie came over and joined them, the rest of her classmates were still rather starry eyed, "Negi-sensei, Evil Naruto-sensei, I'm glad to see both of you are ok." she quietly said and gently grasped Naruto's arm as if to make sure to herself it was still there in one piece.

Akako leapt off Naruto and literally jumped on the pink haired girl with a squeal, "Maki-baa chan!"

Makie sweat dropped and cried anime tears, "Akako... I'm not old enough to be a baa chan!" But she still returned the hug just as enthusiastically, if not more.

Naruto smirked impudently, "Now you know how it feels when you call me Evil Naruto."

Makie stuck her tongue out at Naruto, "Bleeh~ no matter how much time passes, or what people call me, I'll always be the cute Makie-chan of 3-A and you'll always be Evil Naruto-sensei."

Meanwhile Akako clambered back onto her reserved spot on Naruto's lap.

Chachamaru perked up, "Speaking of time, it's nearly time for the ceremony to start. Negi-sensei, please follow me, the tea club has a spare kimono for you to change into."

"Ehhh? Do I have to? Wearing a kimono is troublesome..." Negi pouted from Konoka's lap.

Chachamaru didn't reply, she simply stared unblinkingly at Negi.

Negi felt cold sweat start to bead on his forehead.

She stared a bit more as an ominous aura started spreading around her.

Cold sweat started to tingle on his back.

It didn't take too long for Negi's will to crumble underneath the weight of Chachamaru's intense stare, the gynoid nodded in satisfaction before turning her emotionless eyes onto Makie, "You're coming too." The gynoid said as if it was a foregone thing. The pink haired girl shivered and her will to resist crumbled almost immediately, already knowing it was pointless to resist since she had more than adequate prior experience with the gynoid's stony stare considering how much time she spent with Naruto and therefore Chachamaru.

"Wow... Chachamaru's getting pretty good at keeping idiots in line..." Naruto commented idly as he watched Negi and Makie trailing behind Chachamaru like puppies on a leash.

"When she has an idiot as big and hard headed as you to practice on all the time, can you blame her?" Konoka replied, the amusement in her tone took the edge off of the sarcastic reply.

Naruto cried anime tears and quietly mumbled into Akako's soft hair that smelt of peaches, the same shampoo Chachamaru used, "Akako... papa is being bullied..."

The kitsune girl wiggled in his lap so that she could reach out with her tiny palms and pat her father's whiskered cheeks sympathetically.

Right after that she pointed at the cooling cup of tea and the traditional sweets that usually accompanied said tea and imperially ordered her Papa to feed her.

Naruto snorted, he was, as Albiero impudently put it, figuratively and utterly whipped by all the females in his life. The worst part was he didn't want it to end. How fun.

******Broken Faith******

"Negi-sensei... You never knew your father and you still don't know where or what he's doing now?"

Negi looked at his fidgeting fingers, "N-no... Even before I was born, my father..."

Ayaka gently set a new cup of tea down and sat back with all the grace of a high born lady, "I see..."

Negi picked up the cup and sipped nervously, he had never seen Iincho so serious before.

"I am Yukihiro Ayaka, second daughter of the Yukihiro Zaibatsu... but there are things even I cannot do." Ayaka smiled down at her nervous home room teacher gently, "Even though what I can do maybe limited, please allow me to help you in your search for your father; I know how important family can be to some people." She added casually.

"Ii-iincho..." Negi choked slightly, "Tha-thank you. I appreciate any help you can offer."

Ayaka simply smiled softly.

******Dean's Office******

Naruto walked in casually, having left the tea ceremony after being summoned by the Dean from the tea ceremony. The blonde halted in surprise when he saw the people who were sitting around the Dean's official meeting table, "Decimo! Eishun-san! Ramen Wife! Silver haired dude!

"Yo! It's good to the EXTREME to see you again!"

Naruto grinned at the extremely boisterous welcome and slapped the man roughly on the back as a greeting before sitting down in the seat allocated for him.

The brown haired lady smiled brightly, "Naruto! I heard you were hurt." She paused and squinted at him, "You seem pretty healthy to me." She said accusingly.

Naruto smiled at her, "Rumours of my injuries were greatly exaggerated. But why is everyone here?"

The cloaked leader of the South European Mages smiled benignly at him, "We saw you get injured. Even if it seemed like it was exaggerated, coming here for the Festival was worth it." The sharp look the leader sent him let Naruto know that he hadn't been fooled in the least.

"It's good to see you again Naruto-san." Eishun spoke this time, "I think we'll need to have a talk about the health of my daughter's future very soon."

Naruto felt a shiver crawl down his back. Neither had Eishun apparently.

"But that's something for later," the Eastern Mage Leaders continued with a knowing smile, "First, we wanted to discuss a few things with you."

"Oh?" Naruto said carefully.

"There has been a slight problem in our judicial system, namely in our detention facilities." Konoemon said carefully, "The conditions of your victims are worsening day by day. The medics have declared that Chigusa-san will die in one week if nothing is done to help her, and she is the earliest case we know off." Seeing Naruto about to say something, Konoemon held a hand up to stop him, "We know you did something, and frankly I don't intend on questioning your judgement or morals but I'm afraid that letting her die like that is rather inhumane. I hope you will reconsider lifting your err... curse."

Naruto was silent in thought for a long second as he stared unseeingly at his open palm; it was hard trying to shift his ideals after so long.

Killing people had become so... easy... so convenient...

Was this what Rakan meant?

_Your wisdom restrains you_.

_Looking before you leap isn't necessarily bad, but then that makes the phrase 'leap of faith' a moot point._

_You can barely trust without a contingency plan anymore._

_Because you are Kyuubi. My one and only true friend._

_Will you be proud Akane?_

Naruto drew a steadying breath and spoke, "I agree with you." Everyone around the table were slightly surprised, having expected an argument from the usually implacable blonde, although they hid it well and Naruto continued heedless of their hesitation anyway, "Let me perfectly clear first, no one hears about what I'm about to say. Understood?" When he received nods all around the table, Naruto nodded in satisfaction and continued, "To be totally honest, my technique works by pressuring and breaks the human mind through incredible trauma, the most effective is usually fear but I've used pain and anger before. **BUT **I cannot manipulate feelings, I simply manipulate the person's memories and sort of play whatever affects him the worst on a permanent loop in his mind, but there is a condition I have to fulfil before being able to do something of that magnitude," Naruto took a deep breath, "I have to immerse myself in that person's memories, essentially, I see everything they do from their point of view..." He said ominously.

Everyone present blanched at the implications and the mood in the meeting room turned awkward.

Naruto seeing that they understood his explanation, continued in a monotone regardless of the atmosphere, "At any rate the human mind was never meant to withstand that kind of prolonged stress and the lack of sleep will not help. The average person's mind will break within 3 months and after that they will inevitably die. Since the cost of using something like this is too high, I only ever used that technique against people who I deem deserve it, rapists, murders, people who enjoy the pain of others." Seeing the Dean about to say something Naruto copied the Dean's earlier move and held a hand up to stop him, the dean paused before nodding and allowed him to continue, "But I do agree it is inhumane, I won't stop using the curse, it's one of the most effective non lethal technique I have in my arsenal but I **will** lift the curse on one condition."

All three leaders shared a look before Eishun spoke, "What condition is that?"

Naruto pierced all of them with a penetrating gaze, "They only get one chance. Just one chance. Not four, not unlimited. Just one. If they don't repent then..." he trailed off with a wave of the hand around his head.

Decimo's brow furrowed, "What do you mean?"

Naruto considered his words carefully before replying, "Technically it won't be lifting the curse, instead I'll add a caveat, a condition to the curse instead. The condition will apply from today onwards, and any previous victims I can reach in time to help. The victim will still feel incredible trauma, but it will only last until the victim experiences true regret of what he or she has done. Once that happens the curse will be automatically lifted."

"What if the victim does not regret?" Decimo added in a curious tone.

Naruto stared at him for awhile, "Then the curse will not break. However instead of breaking their minds to the point of death, it will instead cause a total mind wipe. It isn't really isn't that different from its original purpose because breaking their minds is only one step short of death so reconfiguring the curse won't be too hard. In essence, the curse will turn the person a blank slate, allowing them to start all over again. Better an adult baby than an unrepentant rapist or murder. Agreed?"

All of the leaders present shared another look before nodding one by one. "Agreed."

Naruto breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"Next," the blonde suppressed a groan, "We have been requested to officially register you among the ranks of our mages. At the moment you are still a freelancer, albeit one with Ambassadorial status and privileges. Listing you among our ranks will solidify your existence as well as provide you with official citizenship in all participatory branches." Konoemon gestured at the tenth leader of the South European Mages, "Decimo has already agreed to prepare all necessary documents. All that is left is for you to agree and choose your country."

Naruto thought for a while, "What exactly does officially listing me among your ranks mean and why all of a sudden?"

"Officially? You will be categorized into the _Mundus Magicus Immigration Plan_, from there you will be able to legally get a home, rights and proper acknowledgement. At the moment, the person named Naruto Namikaze doesn't officially exist. Therefore you have no rights and legally you can't pass any sort of immigrations check, be it here or in the Magical World, unless you get there by foot or something and completely evade customs, which is illegal anyway. Unofficially? Our people are unsettled when you appear out of nowhere and simply observe missions regardless of the fact that you are simply doing the job your official capacity requires of you and that you were requested to take the missions in the first place."

All three of them then shared a nod before the Dean continued, "The more pressing reason is that the two other magical leaders are pressuring us, its politics at its finest, they are not comfortable when an powerful unknown entity that isn't even a graduate in any of the known schools of magic appearing out of nowhere and observing missions in their territories, even if they requested it themselves."

Konoemon paused thoughtfully before continuing, "So far you've been able to travel because you are inside friendly territory so to speak and at the moment, the only thing stopping them from kidnapping you or something even more stupid when you set foot on their territory is the fact that there are more of us then there are of them."

Naruto snapped his fingers in realization, "So that's what that marriage contract was about, they wanted to tie me down somewhere. A glorified kidnapping? And if I went with it willingly or otherwise you would have no grounds to ask for my return?"

All three of them nodded in confirmation.

The blonde sighed, "So? What does registering entail?"

"Nothing. You just sign a few papers, the documents will be produced under the Immigration plan so most governments will accept it, once that is done we give you an official OCC rank. That is all."

Naruto cocked his head in confusion, "OCC rank?"

Decimo shrugged, "Overall Combat Capabilities. There are all sorts of mages and fighting styles, so it's internationally generalized to help things along." He paused and snidely added, "That and it makes the bureaucrats feel safer when everything is organized. Anyway, the weakest rank is Magician, then the Mages; this is where the bulk of the mage population ranks at, and the Archmage rank. Technically there is another rank above that of the Archmage rank, the Grand Master rank, but only one person ever qualified for that in the entire history of magical culture." Konoemon gestured at Decimo, "At the moment, Eishun and Decimo are both ranked as AAA-class Archmages while Takahata is an S-class mage."

Eishun continued smoothly, "At the moment, based on all the missions you've done so far, you have been ranked as a C-ranked Archmage."

"Huh. Interesting. Is there a list or something where I can look at everybody else's ranks?"

The dean shrugged, "The lists are actually national secrets, so you can only see the list of the country you belong in as long as you have a ranking position in the mage government you belong to. The other leaders know this; so they only require that you be officially ranked. They don't really care what your rank is, as long as you are ranked, although I wouldn't put it past them to not try and ferret the secret out, it's mostly just a formality so that they know Naruto Namikaze isn't just a fictional character or something to intimidate them with."

Naruto grunted, "Politics?"

All three leaders grumbled as if they tasted something bad, "Politics."

Naruto grinned at their humorous expressions, "Alright, let's do this then."

Konoemon smiled slightly, while it wasn't exactly necessary seeing as the three of them presented a political bloc that had enough power to ignore the other two idiots anyway; it felt good to be able to give the blonde a proper background and roots to settle himself down when he wanted.

Once Naruto had signed all the papers, the dean passed him a few documents like his new passport before softly speaking, "Congratulations Naruto."

Naruto smiled back with hint of gratitude shining through.

"And welcome home grandson."

The blonde paled drastically, "Grandson?"

Beside Konoemon, Eishun's nodachi appeared out of nowhere and he suddenly started polishing it with his whetstone.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Utada Hikaru – Beautiful World**

Naruto sighed tiredly, he had been grilled for nearly an hour about Konoka's future wellbeing, Decimo and his wife hadn't helped either. Ramen Wife essentially spent the hour giggling. Loudly.

Decimo on the other hand just asked his extremely, pun intended, loud friend to bring a large bucket of popcorn before sitting back to watch the show. Literally.

"Papa, genki?"

He looked downwards; Akako had been sitting on his lap, using his torso to draw something with crayons. The two of them were sitting on a hill overlooking the church. The same hill from earlier today. In fact, he was even leaning under the same tree, only Chizuru and her charges weren't around this time. He had been feeling very rushed and stressed, what with the meeting, never-ending reporters and time travelling teenagers. It felt like a lot of events were happening at the same time and his nerves were frazzled just by desperately trying to keep up with everything and keeping things straight despite his clones. So he ended up hiding from everybody before stealthily making his way to the field to soothe his incredibly tense nerves before he suffered an aneurysm. The sudden change from hardcore fighting in the tournament back to normal, well as normal as it got around here, life didn't help either and was quite jarring, not to mention the nervous expectations he had about tonight's dates.

Akako had tagged along with him after Chachamaru had excused herself to help Negi avoid all the reporters that wanted to interview the younger half, mostly because the older one scared them shitless with his glares, of the newly formed Springfield Brothers that had suddenly become extremely popular in certain circles. He envied Evangeline, she somehow managed to avoid the hype, probably because she didn't really fight or show off much in the tournament and was peacefully hiding out in her cabin.

"Nothing, Papa's just tired."

Akako sympathetically patted his cheeks with her chubby hands while nodding wisely and went back to her drawing.

Naruto leaned down and placed a slobbery kiss on her forehead, smiling at her annoyed squeal before leaning back onto the tree while pulling out his precious flute. He lifted it to his lips and closed his eyes, letting his fingers dance along the flute, playing any random rhythm or melody that flitted in his mind.

Before long he felt his stress melt away, the flute's music, natural sounds like the blowing breeze and the rustling of leaves played a soothing counter harmony to the quiet steady scratching of crayon on paper, Akako's occasional quiet snuffling and her comforting warmth on his chest, all combined to make him feel like he was almost melting into nature itself.

He didn't know how much time passed and was only startled out of his near trance when a small finger poked his chest, causing him to jump in slight surprise, "Akako? What is it?"

The small girl rubbed her eyes tiredly and yawned, "Akako sleepy."

Naruto smiled and picked the girl up, Akako yawned cutely again before laying her head down on his shoulder. Naruto couldn't help but smile as her tiny snores tickled his earlobe. As he started to move, a rustle of paper got his attention and he looked down to see Akako's forgotten drawing. Carefully he bent down to pick it up and his eyes widened slightly. Not even bothering to hold back his tears he tilted his side and pecked Akako's forehead, "I love you so much Akako, my precious daughter."

"I love you too papa." She mumbled quietly and nuzzled into his shoulder.

Naruto carefully folded the crayon drawing of him, Akako and Chachamaru together in the middle of crowd of stick figures that looked suspiciously like 3-A, before slipping it into a seal. He wiped his tears away and slung his cloak around himself so that he wouldn't disturb Akako, "You there, is there a reason you're watching me?"

A dark shadow emerged from within the tree's shadow.

He waited expectantly for the figure to speak.

A blonde girl slowly stepped out of the shadow, wearing her now customary black clothes and frowned at him with a conflicted expression playing on her face.

"You're that girl... Taka... something?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Takane D. Goodman."

"Ok... Can I help you?"

Takane tilted her head slightly, "If you plan on going to the Magical World be very careful if you meet someone wearing a black cloak and a blank mask."

Naruto's brow scrunched in confusion, "Ok... Why?"

Takane silently considered her reply, "Because I know how much a father can love his daughter and I don't want yours to be sad." She immediately turned around and faded back into the shadows without another word.

"That... was weird..." and considering the era he was currently in, that really said something.

Sighing, he continued to walk towards Evangeline's cabin. Once he was sure Akako was tucked in safely, he left a clone with her before going out to start his 'punishments'.

******Broken Faith******

Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, Mana's idea of a date was to spend her time shooting couples. Naruto couldn't help a small smile at the girl's eccentricity but he complied and largely spent the date quietly talking with her, competing to see who could shoot the most couples and by and large, simply providing company. Perhaps it was more accurate to say that as someone who had grown up on a battlefield, to her love as most people defined it, did not exist on the battlefield, instead she was merely seeking a worthy companion for her journey to the top. He even managed to get a few new tips about how to use a sniper. Naturally he had to pay for it but he didn't mind, the dark skinned girl was intriguing in her own way, and he felt obliged to do his best in drawing her out of her shell.

******Broken Faith******

On the other hand, Konoka took it to the other extreme. Rather than the relaxed date Naruto had been expecting, it was a very formal affair, or to be more accurate, it was a full blown omiai. A traditional Japanese matchmaking ceremony where she solemnly sat on one side of the customary neutral territory table wearing makeup, traditional kimono and her hair was elaborately decorated in the common to most Japanese brides. He had been wondering why he had been provided with a stiff collared male kimono earlier and the scene he had stumbled into answered a lot of questions. Gracefully moving into the seat on the other side of the table designated for the male, he sent the girl a slightly questioning look and received an apologetic smile in response. Before he could say anything, the shoji slid open again to show the elderly Dean, Naruto automatically realized the dean would probably be acting as the intermediary between them during the omiai.

Before the old man could start the formalities, Naruto held a hand up to stop the proceedings. Konoemon raised a bushy eyebrow, "Is there a problem Naruto?"

"After our earlier conversation, I doubt it. Even if you and Eishun-sama hadn't made it a point to give a... fatherly **'**_**I will hurt you if you hurt her'**_speech to me," He paused, a slight chuckle escaping his lips, allowing Konoka to finish glaring at Konoemon as well as kicking him under the table for good measure before continuing, "As I was saying, even if nothing was said, I would have protected her with my life, if not because of my job, then because I consider her a good friend." Naruto wryly said and the Dean had the decency to chuckle quietly in remembrance, "There's also the fact that while I would usually never compromise or agree with an arranged marriage in any way; I already know that both I and Konoka are at least interested in each other, "Konoka blushed brightly at her attraction to him being stated so openly and in front of her grandfather no less, "And we are both willing to try and do our best to make this relationship work, so outside of the fine print and the more technical terms, an omiai is pretty much a moot point and an unnecessary formality by this point. However I would at least like to take it slow and know her outside of formal settings as well as discuss this with someone else important to me before I make any further decisions."

Konoemon nodded in agreement, his terms were reasonable so far.

He looked at the Dean, "What I **AM **curious about though; is why **you** chose me Konoemon-sama. I was literally a nobody that dropped out the sky and don't have the prestige or credentials one would usually expect from something of this degree. So why me?"

The Dean fidgeted uncomfortably for a few seconds before shuffling over beside Naruto and whispering something in the younger man's ears.

Konoka watched curiously as the normally unflappable blonde slowly turned an unhealthy shade of red.

"Cough, cough, I err... see. Uh... I'll leave something like that up to Konoka when we uh... progress that far."

"Ohohoh, you have my gratitude my boy, despite the risk of sounding old fashioned, I won't say I wasn't pleased. It might have been mere coincidence that both of you happened to be interested in each other and I wanted to find a worthy husband for Konoka but I am truly glad that there is the potential for everybody to be happy in something like this."

As Konoka swivelled from one red faced man to another, she silently resolved to get the truth out of Naruto later.

Hopefully he resisted.

She would enjoy beating it out of him just because the waves of embarrassment that was emanating from him was making her feel embarrassed as well.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Supercell/Ryo – Love & Roll**

Naruto blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes slightly, "Err..."

"Wha-what? Am I underdressed?"

His eyebrow twitched a little, "More like overdressed..."

**Can you hear me ?  
Nee ima dokora hen  
Hiiru wo haki nagara calling  
Wakatta sore ja mata ato de  
Okiniiri no music kaketara  
Odekake magiwa kagami ni wink**

Ayaka tugged at the edges of her knee length black dress nervously, "Sho-should I go back and change?"

"No, no, it's alright. What do you want to do for your date?"

This time Ayaka started fingering her pearl necklace, "Um... I was err... hoping you could show me what a normal date was like... I-I've... never been in one..." Her blue eyes steadily stared a hole at her heeled sandals.

Naruto rubbed his temples tiredly while frantically trying to remember what passed for a normal date nowadays. He had been hoping to just let the girls chose what they wanted to do and go along with it, but it looked like the fidgeting blonde in front of him wasn't going to be offering advice anytime soon; Ayaka was unexpectedly... pure. Really, really, pure.

**Do you hear me ?  
Konna no hajimete  
Tokimeku mune wa motto heat up  
Atashi ga atashi ja nai mitai**  
**A lady in love nante  
Waratchau  
Patchiri omeme  
Koakuma meiku  
Chiiku wa itazura ni lovely**

"I see... have you had dinner yet?"

"Um... I thought you would bring me to a restaurant?"

"Ok... What do you feel like eating, and are you hungry yet?"

Ayaka shrugged, "A little, what do people normally eat on a date?"

'_How the hell would I know? Incidentally, why does everyone I meet take one look at me and automatically assume I'm some sort of Casanova? It's the whiskers isn't it?'_

**Honto wa konna no naretenain dakara  
Yasashiku escort shite  
Daibu ganbattemita kedo  
Konna kanji suki ja nai desu ka ?  
Motto chanto mite  
Do you wanna ask me out ?**

Seeing the blonde female start to shuffle her feet, Naruto quickly shoved his thoughts aside and took the lead, "Alright, I know a good place."

Ayaka nodded nervously and followed behind Naruto silently. The man himself was quietly sweating bullets as he tried to think of something to say.

Oh God, he was never going to tease Negi about that _'Talking is nice'_ thing ever again if karma kept coming around to bite him in the butt like this. Speaking of butts, he could almost feel Ayaka's nervous gaze restlessly crawl around on his back and nowhere else, as if she was unable to find a safe spot to rest her eyes on.

**Dokidoki tomaranai heartbeat  
Onna no ko onna no ko shitai no  
Amai kaori ni wagamama na body**

He almost screamed in relief when they reached the small quaint bistro that Negi had introduced to him before. He was going to have to get a present for his little brother very soon if Negi kept indirectly helping him like this. They quickly got a seat and ordered some salad as appetisers, steak for him and some sort of French dish for her. Once that little blessing was done with the nervous tension returned twofold. Naruto stared across the table at her, while she stared at the table. He probably wouldn't have had this problem in a more normal situation but Ayaka's obvious nervousness amplified his own, hence the current silence at the table.

**Shy na boy henjiteru wari ni wa  
Sakki kara mesen ga munamoto da yo ?  
Tsumannai... Kimi tteba okute sugi  
Woooo ho !  
All right ?**

Before long a quiet sigh of despair from Ayaka shook Naruto from his downward spiralling thoughts, "Is something wrong?"

"N-no... I guess I'm just not suited for these kind of things. I'm ruining the date aren't I?"

Naruto cocked his head in confusion, "Not really, why would you think something like that?"

"I dressed wrongly, I don't know what to say, I don't have an-"

Naruto cut her rant off, "You are also stunningly beautiful," Ayaka blushed slightly, "And it's not like I know what to say either." Naruto shrugged, "I've never been on a normal date myself." He admitted honestly with a lopsided grin. It was true, he never had one in Konoha, and the two previous ones obviously didn't count as normal no matter how anyone looked at it.

**Honto wa konna no naretenain dakara  
Yasashiku escort shite  
Daibu ganbattemita kedo  
Konna kanji suki ja nai desu ka ?**

Ayaka looked at him in surprise, "Re-really? But you always say the right things!"

Naruto chuckled in amusement, "I'm not some gutless main character from those cheesy love mangas that are so popular nowadays where more than half the plot only happens because they don't have enough balls to say what's happening or properly communicate their feelings or something along those lines. I rather not end up like them and get depressed for people's entertainment just because I couldn't just say what I felt. So yes I've really never been to a normal date."

"And yet aren't you either dating Chachamaru or Asuna?"

Naruto stared at Ayaka dumbfoundedly, "It's true that I'm currently dating Chachamaru but do you really expect her to go out on a normal date with me? And what do you mean by dating Asuna?"

Technically, none of his current or former _partners_ were the kind of people you could or would take to a normal date; Konoka didn't really count since they only got together today.

Ayaka averted her eyes, hiding a brief flash of disappointment, "I see... I just thought you were really close to Asuna."

Naruto hummed slightly in a non committal manner before continuing, "What about you? I expected you to be the really popular princess type."

Ayaka frowned slightly, "Do I really seem so bad?"

Naruto smiled slightly and shrugged, "There's nothing wrong with being a popular princess but yes. You're blonde, you are incredibly beautiful, you're rich and you like to be in control, it might seem a little like I'm stereotyping you but yes I was essentially expecting you to be the popular princess that knew what you wanted and had really expensive tastes in everything while I followed you around like a lost puppy."

Ayaka laughed slightly, "No... I've never had much time for those kind of things. I'm always rather... busy." She smiled fondly at something, "In fact Asuna became my friend precisely because she was too stubborn and refused to go away even though I kept telling her I was busy."

**Honto wa konna no naretenain dakara  
Yasashiku escort shite  
Daibu ganbattemita kedo  
Konna kanji suki ja nai desu ka ?  
Motto chanto mite  
Do you wanna ask me out ?**

Naruto grinned and filed away the slight tidbit of information about Asuna before asking, "Busy with?"

Ayaka smiled sadly, "Family matters."

"I see..."

Naruto was saved by the bell as dinner arrived, the meal was eaten in silence, but the oppressive nervousness was no longer as bad, they even shared some light conversation around a bit as Naruto swapped dishes with Ayaka.

Naruto stretched slightly as he and Ayaka walked out of the bistro, "What do you want to do now?" Ayaka asked Naruto timidly.

Naruto looked around and smiled before grabbing Ayaka's hand, "It's the Mahora Fest isn't it? There's a lot of stuff to see." Ayaka blushed slightly and squeezed his hand before agreeing happily. The rest of the evening was spent walking around and visiting the various stalls lined up along the main road. Ayaka's face glowed with happiness as Naruto managed to win a big panda plushie for her to carry around. At the end of the road Ayaka looked around disappointedly as they ran out of stalls to play at. Naruto smiled slightly before looping an arm around her waist, "Eeep! What are you doing!"

**Do you love me ?  
Taido de shimeshite  
Chotto kurai gouin demo ii  
Nannimo shinai nante how rude !**

"Relax, you just seemed a little tired, and I wanted to show you something."

Ayaka averted her eyes and grumbled a little but she couldn't help snuggling into the familiar warmth as her as she hugged her new plushie to her chest even tighter as Naruto led her down a dark alley.

"Na-naruto?"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything bad or stupid, I just have something I want to show you, and this is the shortest route there.

**Majimaji mitsumechau your eyes  
Choppiri warui koto ga shitai no  
Furifuri shiteru hip no shippo  
Woooo ho !  
Nee  
Love na scene henjiterun dakara  
Namae kurai yobisute ni shitemite  
Mimimoto atsui toiki wo kakete  
Woooo ho !  
All right ?**

The blonde girl pouted but allowed him to lead her up a few flight of staircases until they reached a small deserted observatory near the top of a hill. It was barely bigger than 3-A's classroom, some elaborate stone railings circled the pavilion and there were a few seats dotted among the marble pillars that served as decorations. As soon as they crested the last step, Ayaka's eyes widened.

"It's beautiful..."

"Isn't it?"

The pavilion overlooked the festival of lights and stalls on the main road while the World Tree quietly glittered in the distance; a gentle breeze quietly blew around the pavilion, not too hot and not too cold. From their vantage point, the night sky made it look as if they were watching a winding river filled with of glittering lights while the scattered stalls looked like bright golden flowers, the river itself seemed to flow from the bright shiny waterfall that was the World Tree.

"I found this little spot a few days ago while I was on patrol. You're the first person I brought up here." Naruto quietly said as he leaned on a pillar and they enjoyed the view.

Ayaka efficiently pinned her hair into a neat bun to stop it from whipping around in the breeze and breathlessly watched the scenery.

"That's not all."

Ayaka's glowing face turned to face him and Naruto grinned as he pulled out a small pack from behind him, "I bought a few fireworks to play with as well. I thought you might like them."

Naruto hadn't thought it was possible but Ayaka glowed even brighter as they played with the sparklers, she danced and swayed in the wind like a dancing little child, waving the sparklers in the air against a background of the starry night sky that contrasted with the river of lights below them.

Listening to music only she could hear, Ayaka spun slowly, waving the sparkler in her hand against the inky sky in an entranced manner. From his spot, leaning against a pillar, Ayaka seemed like a goddess that came down to Earth as the dancing blonde was framed by the sparkling lights of the city and the night sky while the wind blew around her. His only regret was that it wouldn't last as he watched her smile brightly at him.

**Majimaji mitsumechau your eyes  
Choppiri warui koto ga shitai no  
Furifuri shiteru hip no shippo  
Woooo ho !  
Nee  
Love na scene henjiterun dakara  
Namae kurai yobisute ni shitemite  
Mimimoto atsui toiki wo kakete  
Woooo ho !  
All right ?**

As the last sparkler died, her smile dimmed as well, causing Naruto to frown, walk forward and instinctively reach out to cup her cheek, peering into her jade green eyes, her already flushed cheeks brightened further at the intimacy, "You are doing it again," Naruto commented quietly. The wind blew around him gently, his ponytail whipped in the air as he continued to gaze intensely at her.

"Do-doing what?"

"Whenever we do something, like scooping goldfishes, eating toffee apples, playing games, you glowed so brightly and so innocently, you smiled and laughed, but then as if remembering something, you suddenly stop yourself and become sad but you try to hide it. You've been doing it the whole evening."

Ayaka scrunched her eyebrows together and frowned before averting her eyes, she pulled away from him, instinctively wrapping her scarf around her tighter at the sudden fall in temperature that she always experienced happened around her distaff counterpart, looking out at the festival of bright dancing lights she steadied her voice and replied, "It-It's nothing. I was just thinking."

Naruto frowned, "Why are you hiding something from me? Aren't we friends?"

**Do you love me ?  
Taido de shimeshite  
Chotto kurai gouin demo ii  
Nannimo shinai nante how rude !  
Yappari riido saretai no  
Oshitsukeru ude tomadou kimi  
Korekurai sureba wakaru desho ?  
Gaado wa sukoshi amaku shite  
Nan'ido sageteageru kara**

Ayaka suddenly hissed angrily at him, "Friends? Hiding?" she laughed weirdly, "You don't have the right to say something like that to me. You are hiding even more things than I am." She whipped around and tried to calm herself as she watched the lights again.

"Like what?"

Ayaka glanced at him briefly with a slight frown before turning back to stare impassively at the dark sky, "Like magic."

Naruto's breath hitched, "How?"

The blonde girl snorted quietly, "Why should I tell you? You and Negi have done your best to hide everything from me and the others in class haven't you?"

Naruto stared at the silently fuming girl.

_You can't even trust without having contingency plans._

Naruto stifled a quiet groan before making an on the spot decision, "I'm not human. I was sealed in the World Tree 5000 years ago and was only recently released; I never had amnesia, that was just a cover story the Dean made for me because after freeing myself from the Tree, I was weak and had nowhere to go so the Dean recruited me to stay here as a bodyguard to 3-A..."

Ayaka stared at him in shock as the blonde prattled on about everything he had done until now, uncaring about who might hear him.

"I won't say who in the class knows about magic, if you want to know, you have to ask them because it's not my secret to tell." He took a deep breath, "There. Other than those that are too dangerous to mention or too personal, I have no other secrets to hide from you. You even know me better than Asuna now." he watched the blonde girl expectantly, "Your turn."

It took a while for Ayaka to gather her wits, "So... you're not really human?" she asked carefully.

Naruto shrugged uncaringly, "Not exactly, what passed as a human 5000 years ago probably no longer applies to those from today, right?"

**Tokimeki kanjiru wa my heart  
Onna no ko onna no ko shiteru no  
Uwamezukai wa kimi e no sain  
Woooo ho !  
Nee  
Karuku smile kusugure koigokoro  
Lock on kimi wa mou meromero  
Kakugo ga dekita nara kiss shite  
Woooo ho !  
All right ?**

"I see..." Ayaka promptly fainted, fortunately a chuckling Naruto managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Carrying the limp girl bridal style he sat down on the stone seats provided for visitors to that pavilion, her head lying on his lap.

******Broken Faith*****

Minutes or hours passed, Naruto didn't really care, one hand stroked her hair while he absently watched the parade pass them, until Ayaka stirred on his lap, opened one jade green eye and carefully surveyed her surroundings, "That... wasn't a dream was it?" were the first things she said.

"Nope." Naruto promptly replied with a humorous smile.

"That really isn't funny you know..."

"That depends on the person who's asking doesn't it? Watching you faint and then snore so cutely definitely qualified as funny for me."

Ayaka blushed, whether from embarrassment or anger or something else, Naruto didn't know since the blonde girl started pummelling him. Laughingly, Naruto endured the beating for a few minutes before pulling the girl onto his lap, "Kyah! Let me go you pervert!"

"Not until you tell me what you were hiding."

The girl immediately sobered up, "I wasn't really hiding anything."

"Right... and I'm not a relic from the past."

They were silent for a while, Naruto letting the girl gather her thoughts, "Would you say I resemble Chizuru?"

"Huh?" Naruto looked at her weirdly, "I suppose so, you're both surprisingly... err... beautiful for your age I guess... why?"

Ayaka snorted in amusement at how he phrased it, "She's my cousin from my mother's side. My mother's family were mages." Naruto's jaw dropped by Ayaka continued to speak with glazed over eyes and a fond smile, "They weren't mages in the traditional sense. They can't use magic like Negi-sensei does; instead their magic is restricted to within their bodies, making them far stronger, faster, smarter and better looking than the average person. I suppose you could say that the mature looks Chizuru and I have; despite being only 14 is a trademark of the Naba family."

"A Kekkei Genkai... a bloodline limit..." Naruto said in slight awe, "I never thought I'd see one again. Wait, why do you refer to your relatives as _'they'_?"

Ayaka seemed thoughtful, "Hmm... bloodline limit... sounds like an apt description..." she murmured quietly before snapping back into focus, "Oh, I call them _'they'_ because they disowned my mother." Ayaka said in a monotone.

"What? Why?"

Ayaka stared down at her toes, determined not to meet Naruto's eyes, as she wiggled them slightly, "When I said they were better than an average person, I wasn't joking. You can usually find a Naba, or someone blood related at or at least near the top of any vocation or chosen field of studies. My mother was an exception. She was extremely smart even for a normal Naba, but it was offset by her very bad health. She was so frail..." Ayaka trailed off slightly before shaking, as if trying to dislodge the depressing thoughts from her head, "Basically because of the bloodline limit as you put it, Naba family members are always matched to a suitable partner shortly after birth to ensure there is no shortage of geniuses. My mother disagreed and ran away. I don't know if she did it out of spite or if she really loved him, but she became my father's mistress and to make matters worse, she exposed the magical world to him. The Yukihiro's were completely Mundane till then and after that my father, overjoyed at the new and incredibly versatile market and labour pool, started hiring mages by the dozens."

Naruto held her tighter as her slight frame started to shiver, the strong Iincho of 3-A suddenly seemed so weak and vulnerable. A quick flick of his hand wrapped his cloak around them like a blanket.

She looked at him gratefully and snuggled into his arms, she wanted to stop there, but suddenly she couldn't stop from spilling her secrets. She had never told anyone this before, not even Asuna, although she suspected the red head knew something and was merely waiting for her best friend to gather enough courage to tell her.

Heedless of her mind, her heart and lips continued in a low whisper, "I heard there were a lot of problems; my mother's family demanded her return, the Magical Association tried to stop him from exposing the Magical World anymore than necessary and my father's first wife among others, but my mother persevered because she loved him even though she was disowned. My father's first wife only had one child, a daughter, my half sister and first daughter to the Yukihiro family at the time, then Mother gave birth to me. The process was difficult and she nearly died. After that... things started to decline. Knowing my mother was a Naba in blood and any child from her would be exceptional, Father tried to make her pregnant again. He was so happy that he was finally going to have a son and one with great potential at that... but she didn't survive the pregnancy...and neither did he..."

"Negi-sensei reminds me so much of Mother... she was so smart..."

Naruto wrapped his arms tightly around the shaking girl on his lap as she started to sob quietly and buried her face in his shoulder to hide her embarrassment, "Mother loved me very much, one of the earliest things I remember about her was that she always read me bed time stories about family... I know Father loves me just as much... but he is a businessman first and foremost. After Mother passed away... things became very... tense between me and my step mother so I was given a monthly allowance of about 50000 yen and sent away to Japan, because it was my Mother's home country, to stay by myself. I didn't mind, if going away meant I could keep the peace in the household, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Externally, the chronologically ancient ninja was speechless, internally there were more than a few things Naruto could say to describe her father.

And her stepmother.

None of them polite.

Actually polite would be a seriously understated euphemism for what he currently had in mind.

So he forced himself to focus on something else, "You said only 50000 yen, then how are you able to afford so many things? Shouldn't you be saving instead of spending?"

Ayaka sniffed and wiped her tears away with his cloak before shrugging his question off like it wasn't important, "Father wanted me to be the perfect daughter and wife, so I studied very hard for him. I wanted to make him proud, that's why Asuna was my best friend, she stayed by my side no matter what, even when I yelled at her while mourning for my Mother. At any rate, I had to learn a lot of things on my own. I saved the money and invested them properly. Most of the time, I just tell the others that my Father paid for them because I don't want them feeling indebted to me." She finished sheepishly.

Naruto looked at her sharply, "Daughter and _wife_?"

Ayaka shrugged slightly, "I am a Naba in all but name, I cannot inherit since I was technically born out of wedlock, so I am expected to help his heir, my sister in running the company. At the same time, I was allowed to use the Yukihiro name because I am supposed to get married to someone of his choice and produce more... suitable heirs. It's the logical thing to do..."

Naruto tried to hide his thunderous expression from Ayaka by burying his face in her hair, arranged marriages from birth weren't something strange to him considering the people from his own era had a bad tendency of doing exactly that in order to preserve their bloodline limits.

Didn't mean he liked it though.

Scratch that, he really didn't like it.

Naruto's voice came out muffled as he mumbled into her hair, "You are a far better person than I am."

Ayaka laughed slightly at the ticklish sensation, "I doubt it."

"If my father was like that, I would have run away as soon as possible and made my own fortune just to spite him; that alone makes you better than me."

Ayaka chuckled throatily.

"And arranging a wife? I would have told him to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. No one deserves to have the choice of who to love taken away from them. You can't marry someone just because your Father wants you to, Ayaka."

Ayaka abruptly stood up and stepped away from Naruto with her back facing him, a silent pause fell between the two of them before Ayaka finally replied with slight waver in her voice, "I... I can't do that... He's my father."

Naruto stood up and growled, "Look at me Ayaka," the blonde hesitantly listened and gazed into his determined eyes, "Would a father do something like that? Think of me and Negi, do you think either of us could bring ourselves to do something like that to our children? You don't deserve a loveless marriage Ayaka, I won't let it happen even if I have to marry you myself!"

Ayaka desperately tore her watering eyes away from him at his declaration, "It's not my decision to make. Besides I don't love you and you don't love me either. What difference would it make?" She answered stiffly before continuing, "I'm sorry I don't feel like talking about something like this anymore. Excuse me for a moment; I need to find a bathroom."

Naruto watched the blonde girl walk away stiffly; he could tell that he had offended her by pushing her about something like that, but he couldn't help it, because of his upbringing, freedom of choice was a very sore issue for him. Angrily he let punched a wall uselessly; the cement wall crumbled under the force of his anger and made another spontaneous decision.

It was time to use one of his contingencies. Oh the irony.

Snapping a small cell phone out of his pocket he dialled a number and lifted it to his ear and heard the dial tone for a few seconds before a deep gruff voice answered, "Kichi here. Who's calling?"

"It's Naruto. Did everything go well?"

"Aniki? Yeah, it was too easy." The deep voice laughed; a cross between a bass croak and a gong, "Our men already infiltrated most of your targets. I'd be the first to admit that five thousand years have made the toads as weak as hell but when I look at what passes for humans nowadays I can't help but laugh. The yakuza nowadays are pathetic compared to ours. Jiraiya woulda knocked everything down in two days before crowning himself Ruler of the World and making his own private harem."

"Laugh all you like but don't get careless. You've only been fighting normal humans so far, I doubt you've fought any mages so far."

"There were a few. Mostly alley rat types, nothing of consequence."

"That's exactly why I don't want you to let your guard down; there are people here who can match me blow for blow and fight as good or better than you. Anyway I called because I finally got legit documents. You don't have to forge them anymore."

The deep voice on the other end grumbled about squishy mages trying to attack him, "Eh good, it was a pain in the ass finding a forger good enough to make what you wanted exactly as you specified."

"Good. Go ahead with Phase 2."

"Huh? So fast? I thought you wanted complete control over the triads and the Yakuzas first?"

"Something came up, so I need operations to get legit as soon as possible, use as much money as you need. I'll send the copies to you but before you start anything else, check out the Yukihiro Conglomerate. I want any and all information about the current CEO, then we can start strategizing about how we can pressure them into folding. Long term target; I want the current CEO wiping your ass with toilet paper plated with gold."

"Snort, whoever he is, he's going to need a lot of gold for that, I had three hundred years of doing nothing but waiting around on my ass and now I'm twice as big as Dad ever was." There was a bit of mumbling on the other end of the connection, along with the sounds of fingers clacking on the keys of a keyboard, "Yuki... Yukihi... Damn keyboard, ah, here we go. Ooh... Ambitious, not bad, Aniki, I thought you were getting soft on me, what with all the soft targets. Pretty well known, pretty big, fingers in every pie, but one of the organizations we infiltrated already have a toehold with them, something about illegal magic to make their deals smoother. Shouldn't be too hard, but it'll take a while, they have a lot of investments all over the place."

"One year, coordinate with Decimo's Mafia if you have too."

"Two and a half."

"Two max."

"Done."

"Don't do anything too illegal or damage them too badly, it's a wedding present. I just want the CEO susceptible to suggestions. Very susceptible. Also dig up any blackmail along with the information on him if you can but don't do anything with it until I say so. I want him to know that I have him by the balls as he watches his life figuratively crumble around him slowly and painfully."

"Wow... I don't think I've ever heard you so pissed off before. Then again, I never thought destroying people like this would be more fun than spitting huge gobs of water at them either. Kukuku..." Naruto heard the strangely happy gruff voice start yelling orders.

"Like I said, don't let your guard down and make sure they don't get any dirt on us, I don't want them getting away because of some loophole. Other than that, go wild."

"Osu Aniki. I'll be seeing you soon? The men are getting restless since you haven't shown up lately."

"Next week, I'll bring the copies at the same time."

"Good." The line went dead and the cell phone went back into his pocket, an evil yet completely satisfied smile played on his lips. Being a good and pure and utterly virginal hero was one thing but being a manipulative bastard had its moments as well. Toads made great financial brokers and yakuzas. Who knew?

"Naruto? Can we go back now? I don't feel well."

The blonde glanced over his shoulder to see Ayaka standing with a straight back, her head held up proudly, by the staircase. Naruto nodded shortly and moved to escort the girl home. The entire journey was silent, not a hint of the previous light heartedness was present until Ayaka broke it with an idle comment as the dorms came into view, "I saw Asuna earlier when I was looking for a toilet."

The ninja quirked a curious eyebrow at her, "Oh?"

"She was confessing to Takahata-sensei. Shouldn't you be there to stop her?"

"Not really." Was the casual reply as they reached the front door.

"Why not? You like her more than me after all." she stiffly asked, "Or are you are just a doppelganger or one of those clones Kaede can make, and the original is there stopping her?"

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Rap Is a Man's Soul (Short Start Edit)**

Naruto blinked, before slowly drawing a small tri pronged Kunai out of his pocket.

Ayaka gazed curiously at the blade, "What are you doing?" she asked warily.

Her date twirled the blade in his fingers expertly with a small smile before with a swift but violent move stabbed the kunai straight through his free palm.

"What are you doing! Are you mad?" Ayaka screeched as she grabbed his injured hand and tried to stem the blood flow with her scarf.

He pulled out the blade with a crunch of bone, causing Ayaka to pale, before gently wiping her blood soaked hands with a handkerchief he pulled out from somewhere, all the while his sapphire eyes were gazing intensely at her, "She is no more or less important than you. You are both my friends and equally important to me, I refuse to insult someone precious to me by sending a clone in my place to a promised date." His voice was soft yet firm.

Meanwhile Ayaka was staring disbelievingly at his palms. The gash from the strange blade he carried was completely gone, the blood was still there but the wound had steamed and healed right in front of her eyes. Her emotions boiled inside her chest; anger at his stupidity, embarrassment at his heartfelt words and something else she didn't particularly want to acknowledge at the moment. Instead she pulled her hands out of his grip and glared at him, "Stop saying embarrassing things like that!" she tried to stomp away only for Naruto to grab her hand again and pull her close.

His other arm went around her waist possesively.

Ayaka's breath hitched at the closeness.

Their noses were barely inches apart and his determined eyes bore into hers.

"I wasn't lying about anything I said so far. And I really meant it when I said I'll do everything in my power to stop you from being stuck in a loveless marriage, even if I have to marry you myself." His words were tinged with a quiet but fierce confidence that sent shivers down her back even as he slowly cornered her until her back was against the cement wall.

There was nowhere to run.

"I won't disobey my father."

"I'll make sure he can't turn my offer down."

Ayaka's resolve started to falter.

"What about Chachamaru, Konoka and Asuna?"

"I'll deal with it."

Ayaka bit her lip; she was running out of arguments.

"But I don't love you." She whispered in an almost husky tone.

"Then I'll make you love me."

Then his lips captured hers, and she forgot her name.

******Broken Faith******

Evangeline quirked an eyebrow at a whistling Naruto as he walked in and sank into the sofa opposite her, "What's got you so happy?"

"Nothing. I just proposed to Ayaka." Naruto paused and grimaced briefly, "Now the problem is that I have no idea how I'm going to explain this to Chachamaru. Anyway, she fainted before she could reply, then when she woke up she got a phone call from Ku Fei about something important so she had to run off... I never knew she could run so fast. In high heels too. "

"Oh." Evangeline looked back at her book, ignoring the smirking shinobi. The other blonde simply smirked, patiently waiting for the inevitable explosion.

He wasn't disappointed.

Evangeline's head suddenly shot up when his words managed to permeate her brains and the book in her hands suddenly tore in half, "Wait what? Proposal? What happened to 'only Apologies'? What happened to dying?" Evangeline yelled in shock.

Naruto tossed her a very wide smile that didn't reach his eyes, "Who the hell do you think I am? Unless Kami-sama wants to personally find out **exactly **how much of a vindictive bastard I can be, He'd better get in line and wait for me to get there; when I want, how I want and like it."

******Broken Faith******

**Strangely enough, I felt this song really fit Ayaka and Naruto in this situation. **

**Can you hear me ?  
Nee ima dokora hen – **Do I look weird now?**  
Hiiru wo haki nagara calling - **I'm calling from somewhere as I wear my heels.**  
Wakatta sore ja mata ato de - **Ok, well then, I'll see you in a bit**  
Okiniiri no music kaketara - **As my favorite music plays**  
Odekake magiwa kagami ni wink - **I wink at the mirror before I leave.**  
Dobikiri kawaii kakko de - **With a very cute gesture,**  
Boryuumu agete let's gouon - **Let's pump up the volume and [roar] !**  
Kibun wa full 10 de knockout ! - **My mood is a Full 10 Knockout !

Do you hear me ?  
Konna no hajimete -

This is the very first time**  
Tokimeku mune wa motto heat up - **My throbbing heart Heats up...**  
Atashi ga atashi ja nai mitai - **This is not like me...**  
A lady in love nante - **"A lady in love"... As if,**  
Waratchau - **It makes me laugh !**  
Patchiri omeme - **Big and beautiful eyes**  
Koakuma meiku - **With devilish make up !**  
Chiiku wa itazura ni lovely - **My cheeks are uselessly lovely...**  
Konya no shisen wa hitorijime - **Tonight, all eyes are on me, but**  
I don't know what to do  
Datte watashi - **Because I...

Honto wa konna no naretenain dakara -

I'm not really used to this...**  
Yasashiku escort shite - **So gently escort me 'kay ?**  
Daibu ganbattemita kedo - **I'll try to give it my all but,**  
Konna kanji suki ja nai desu ka ? - **Do you like it like this ?**  
Motto chanto mite - **Take a good look at me,**  
Do you wanna ask me out ?**

Dokidoki tomaranai heartbeat -

My heartbeat won't stop,**  
Onna no ko onna no ko shitai no - **A girl, I wanna be like a girl**  
Amai kaori ni wagamama na body - **With my whimsical body covered in a sweet scent.**  
Woooo ho !  
Nee - **Hey,**  
Shy na boy henjiteru wari ni wa - **You act like a shy boy, but**  
Sakki kara mesen ga munamoto da yo ? - **Haven't you been staring at my body since a while ago ?**  
Tsumannai... Kimi tteba okute sugi - **So boring... You're too shy.**  
Woooo ho !  
All right ?**

Do you love me ?  
Taido de shimeshite -

Show it with action,**  
Chotto kurai gouin demo ii – It'**s fine if you're a bit forceful !**  
Nannimo shinai nante how rude ! - **Not doing anything to me... How rude !**  
Yappari riido saretai no - **As I figured, you want to be led instead huh ! ?**  
Oshitsukeru ude tomadou kimi - **If I push the bewildered you,**  
Korekurai sureba wakaru desho ? - **With this much, you'll understand right ?**  
Gaado wa sukoshi amaku shite - B**ring your guard down a bit and**  
Nan'ido sageteageru kara – I'**ll bring my difficulty level down.

Aseranaide yukkuri de ii kara ne ? -

It's better taking it easy without rushing right ?**  
Baby  
Koko kara escape shite - **Let's escape from here and**  
Futarikiri ni nattara amaechau yo - **When we're alone, I'll spoil you !**  
Sonna kanji suki ja nai desu ka ? - **Do you like it like this ?**  
Motto kotchi kite - **Come here a bit,**  
Do you wanna take me out ?**

Majimaji mitsumechau your eyes -

take a long look at your eyes,**  
Choppiri warui koto ga shitai no - **And feel like teasing you a bit !**  
Furifuri shiteru hip no shippo – I **shake and shake my hip and tail !**  
Woooo ho !  
Nee  
Love na scene henjiterun dakara - **I wanna try acting out a love scene,**  
Namae kurai yobisute ni shitemite - **So at least try calling out my name**  
Mimimoto atsui toiki wo kakete - **Whisper it into my ear with your warm breath !**  
Woooo ho !  
All right ?**

Tokimeki kanjiru wa my heart -

I feel the throbbing of my heart,**  
Onna no ko onna no ko shiteru no - **A girl, I'm being a girl !**  
Uwamezukai wa kimi e no sain - **My eyes glancing up are a sign for you,**  
Woooo ho !  
Nee  
Karuku smile kusugure koigokoro - **My light smile tickles your heart,**  
Lock on kimi wa mou meromero - Lo**ck On, you are already enchanted by me !**  
Kakugo ga dekita nara kiss shite - I**f you're ready for it, Kiss me !**  
Woooo ho !  
All right ?**

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note**

**Someone said that they are getting tired of only reading about a strong and cool Naruto , that all the cool scenes so far belong only to him and it's getting tiring because ya know, by and large he's pretty much superman etc etc.**

**While I can hardly comment about that statement, mostly because I'm rather biased myself, I do understand where you are coming from and I cannot deny the possibility of that kinda thing happening. I've said it before, I admit I'm not good enough to think of, write and juggle multiple scenes, character development, romance and all those other junk, between Naruto, Negi and all other related characters and still be able to keep everything straight at the same time. I am simply unable to multitask to a level like that. Lol.**

**So the story will primarily be Naruto-centric despite Negi being the protagonist. If you get tired with that... well there's really nothing I can do except apologise.**

**Oh and if the phrase "Broken Faith" didn't clue you in to the fact that there was going to be some heavy emotional stuff going on, you need new glasses.**

**And yes I left Chizuru's date out on purpose. Hehehe...**

**P.S : I think we all knew that this being something created by Akamatsu Ken, a happy ending was more or less inevitable. But that time travel thing was rather cheap, even by my standards. T^T**


	23. Because

**Broken Faith 23**

**Because**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto and its variants belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Mahou Sensei Negima and its variants belong to Ken Akamatsu. Songs belong to their respective singers and publishers and I'm simply borrowing all of the above. **

**This chapter is released at the same time Chapter 354 of Mahou Negima Sensei hit online readers(I still buy the mangas when they come out by the way, more permanent.) as a commemoration of the 2****nd**** last chapter of a manga series that has lasted for nearly a decade and entertained millions. **

**P.S : That being said, I'm rather busy with University at the moment, so I didn't notice that 354 was already posted. Therefore, this chapter came out early, thank Khagerou for letting me know and giving me the link to a translated copy from Red Hawk. He's the reason this came out early, otherwise you would've have to wait till next Sunday (My usual down time when I check for updated mangas, the chapter came out on a Monday apparently) before this came out. Also I purposely set up the Mahora arc Fest to end at the same time that Mahou Sensei Negima ends as well, chapter 24 is already written and I'm simply waiting for 355 to make it out.**

**It's rather bittersweet, knowing that in a way what I'm writing is like signalling the end of something I like. **

**Soundtrack List**

Nickelback – Gotta be Somebody

Nickelback – If Today Was Your Last Day

******Broken Faith******

"Takahata-sensei! I have always loved you~!" Asuna yelled out, her face burning brightly and her eyes resolutely focused on her shoes.

A brief silence passed before she heard the sound of a sad chuckle, "I thank you for your feelings Asuna... I'm really really glad for them..." Asuna looked up in slight hope.

"But I can't think of you in that way. I've watched you grow up and taken care of you ever since you came to Mahora, you're like my daughter."

They shared a few more quiet words before Asuna suddenly gave him a bright smile and clutched her chest, "It... it hurts a lot. I knew it would hurt but not this much, but I wanted to thank you for giving me a proper answer anyway."

Takahata watched Asuna give him one last deep bow before turning around and leaping off the edge of the roof where they ended the date.

Sighing, the mature teacher drew a badly needed deep breath of nicotine before dejectedly looking back out onto the blazing light show that was Mahora Festival.

He took another lungful of nicotine and spoke as he blew out smoke, "What are you two doing here?"

Two male figures landed gracefully on either side of him on top of the roof's battlements.

He drew another lungful and smiled softly, "Long time no see Al. Naruto, I thought you were busy? That one date was stressful enough but I heard you had more dates than strictly healthy?"

The robed man chuckled, "You too Takahata. You've really grown." While Naruto snorted, "You're telling me. I'm still a bit jumpy from Ayaka's date. Thank Kami for small blessings like that time clock thingy. If it wasn't for that, I would've had to make a few blood clones, and draining myself of blood over and over again isn't exactly pleasant."

All three of them fell silent awkwardly, "Why did you brush her off? Asuna Kaguraka was quite the trophy prize."

"Oi," Naruto grunted at Albiero with annoyance, "I don't appreciate you comparing my friends to trophies."

Albiero waved him off, "I meant no offence. It was a metaphor."

Takhata chuckled at their bickering, but it stopped the moment he spoke, "Someone like me... doesn't deserve someone like her." He lifted his eyes to look at the blonde, "I think Naruto would know better than most what I mean."

Naruto simply smirked before turning serious, "I thought I was supposed to be the cynical anti hero here? But not really, I don't really see why not. Taking people's lives will never be pleasant but if it meant some 5 year old somewhere could sleep safely at night then no. Do I like doing it? Only those who are insane don't. But it was necessary. It may sound a bit hypocritical of me but I don't see the point in regretting something like that as long as I don't enjoy the killing itself. The only difference between you and me is that I choose to repent and regret in my own way, and you chose to deny this from yourself."

Takahata laughed at his friend's somewhat callous but essentially logical assessment.

Albiero snorted, "After saying something like that, you have enough guts to get angry at me for calling you old man? Go bang yourself in a mirror."

Takahata perked up, "Speaking of something like that, you're not angry with me?" he asked the blonde who was in the process of throttling Albeiro.

"Why would I be?" Naruto asked blandly as he dropped the robed man like a brick.

"Because I turned her down and hurt her."

Naruto's eyes flickered towards the direction in which Asuna had left, "None of us here are Gods, Michi." He said softly, "If I got angry at everybody who hurt a friend for any reason at all, I might as well kill everyone alive before stuffing explosives up my ass and going out with a bang. It was her choice to have feelings for you and it was her choice to confess to you. It was your choice to reject her as well. Do I like the fact that she got hurt because of that? No I don't. But it was her choice and both of you acted logically according to your respective rationales. Sure you will have to live with the consequences of those choices whether you regret them or not, but as long as it was her choice I will respect it." Naruto paused and smirk, "Of course, the fact that you had a valid reason helped. If you had turned her down for a stupid reason like her chest wasn't big enough, they wouldn't find your body."

All three of them shared a laugh at Naruto's joke.

Takahata sighed again before noticing that Naruto still hadn't looked away from the edge of the roof Asuna had leap from, "Go to her Naruto, she needs a friend right now."

Naruto jumped slightly in surprise, he hadn't realized he had been so obvious. The blonde replied hesitantly, "I... I think she should be alone for now. She probably wouldn't appreciate me showing up, not when she knows that I have feelings for her like that and it would feel too much like I'm taking advantage of the situation or something anyway."

Takahata smiled, "And that's why I trust you to go after her. As her father figure I ask that you take care of her for me."

Naruto hesitated and looked at him once more for approval.

Once he received the nod, Naruto hurriedly leapt away with a quiet, "Thanks... Michi."

Takahata leaned back onto the balcony and sucked another lungful or smoke.

"You're going to die before I am, if you keep smoking that thing."

Takamichi snorted, "As if. Speaking of dying, where the hell have you been all this years?"

******Broken Faith******

**Play Nickelback – Gotta be Somebody**

Asuna meandered around town alone in a daze; she hadn't seen Ayaka since Takahata's toilet break. Judging by her dressy outfit, she assumed her best friend had her own date or something equally important. Without realizing it, she found herself in front of her dorm room.

_**This time I wonder what it feels like  
To find the one in this life, the one we all dream of  
But dreams just aren't enough**_

Sighing quietly, she opened the door and walked in. Everything seemed to a bit of a blur, she barely felt anything. She couldn't really think. So she sat down on the couch as if in a trance, pulled her knees up against her chest and stared unseeingly out the window, unable to cry or feel. Empty. From a purely logical standpoint, she had already predicted this would happen, she even planned for it. But it hurt so much.

She didn't know how long she had sat there, only that it was very comfortable and she didn't think she wanted to leave or move ever again.

_**So I'll be waiting for the real thing  
I'll know it by the feeling  
The moment when we're meeting will play out like a scene  
Straight off the silver screen**_

Someone opened the door and stepped in quietly but Asuna didn't make any move to acknowledge the person, she assumed it was Konoka or Negi. A slight sagging on the sofa told her the person had taken the seat beside her but didn't do anything else. He or she was just there. Which meant it wasn't Negi.

_**So I'll be holding my own breath right up 'til the end  
Until that moment when I find the one that I'll spend forever with**_

They remained that way for a long time, neither acknowledging the other, only the sounds of calm breathing filled the room.

Asuna sniffed slightly.

And that was what broke the dam.

Before long, tears started to roll down her cheeks, she couldn't hold them back any longer and her sniffs increased in volume until her shoulders were heaving and she was sobbing into her skirt.

_**'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there  
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares  
Someone to love with my life in their hands  
There's gotta be somebody for me like that**_

A warm hand wrapped around her curled up body and lifted her up before setting her down on the person's lap. Not once did she stop sobbing into her skirt. The person made no attempt to stop her or do anything else; he or she was just there, allowing her to take comfort in his presence.

Abandoning her skirt, she buried her face in his chest and screamed and tugged at the cloth until her sobs turned into quiet sniffles and her tears stopped flowing. When she had exhausted herself the person's calloused hands wiped her tears away with a handkerchief, his other arm secured her position on his lap while moving up and down her back in a soothing rhythm.

Since she had exhausted herself by screaming herself back into sensibility Asuna took the chance to turn her blurry eyes up to identify the person she was using as a pillow, "Naruto?"

_**'Cause nobody wants to do it on their own  
And everyone wants to know they're not alone  
There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere  
There's gotta be somebody for me out there**_

Naruto smiled slightly but didn't stop rubbing her back and sides soothingly, "I'm not going anywhere. Cry as much as you want."

Asuna choked out her thanks and buried her face back into his warm chest, "I must look pathetic."

_**Tonight, out on the street, out in the moonlight  
And you know this feels too right  
It's just like déjà vu  
Me standing here with you**_

Naruto shrugged, "It depends."

"On?"

Naruto shifted uncomfortably and averted his eyes.

Asuna poked him in the side, "Why aren't you saying anything?"

The blonde mumbled something incomprehensible to her ears.

_**So I'll be holding my own breath, could this be the end?**_  
_**Is it that moment when I find the one that I'll spend forever with?**_

She poked him harder and Naruto winced at how much strength she put into the poke, she glared at him with watery eyes and he sighed tiredly before whispering guiltily, "I don't think you look pathetic. You've always looked so... incredibly beautiful to me, no matter you're doing, crying or fighting or laughing, when you let your hair down and it shines in the sunlight, that cute scrunched up expression you get whenever you're thinking..." Naruto's voice steadily got lower and lower, guiltier and guiltier until she couldn't hear it anymore."

Asuna nearly stopped breathing; no one had called her beautiful before.

_**'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there  
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares  
Someone to love with my life in their hands  
There's gotta be somebody for me like that**_

Without thinking she reached up to cup his cheeks and turn his eyes back to hers, she could see so much self hatred in them.

"Why do you look so guilty?" She whispered.

"Be...Because..."

He went silent again for so long that she was about to poke him again when he finally answered, "Because I can't help but fall in love more every time I look at you, especially now. But I don't know, I can't tell anymore, whether I'm falling in love with Akane or Asuna. And I hate myself that little bit more every time I have to ask myself; do I love her **because** she looks like Akane... I hate myself because I can't bring myself to choose, for loving more than one girl at the same time... It's wrong... but I can't help it and it's not fair for any of you."

_**'Cause nobody wants to do it on their own  
And everyone wants to know they're not alone  
There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere  
There's gotta be somebody for me out there**_

He quietly trailed off as their faces unknowingly got closer with every word, until Asuna could feel his breath on her lips and his burning sapphire gaze never left her own mismatched orbs. Slowly she closed her eyes and leaned forward for that final leap.

His lips were sweet and warm and she revelled in it as they pressed onto her own. It was a chaste kiss. She unconsciously opened her lips and let her tongue flick forward, causing him to jerk for a moment before returning it with equal vigour. Her arms snaked around his neck and brought their bodies as close as possible, while his massaged her sides and back, alternating between fast and slow strokes, but always gentle and warm.

_**You can't give up, looking for a diamond in the rough  
You never know when it shows up  
Make sure you're holding on  
'Cause it could be the one, the one you're waiting on**_

"Oh God," Naruto moaned into the kiss and Asuna felt herself chuckle throatily.

Their tongues intertwined slightly and Naruto pressed forward, slipping his hands underneath her blouse, seeking skin to skin contact with her warm skin.

She returned the favour, wanting to warm her dainty fingers by slipping underneath his shirt. As soon as her fingers touched the skin on his torso, the blonde jerked back as if burned and immediately got as far as possible with the girl still on his lap, his breaths deep and ragged. Asuna's eyes were glazed over but she had enough presence of mind to speak, "What's wrong?"

_**'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there  
And everyone wants to feel like someone cares  
Someone to love with my life in their hands  
There's gotta be somebody for me, oh...**_

Naruto took a while to steady his breathing, "Th-this is wrong Asuna, You just con-confessed to Takahata, you're still too emotionally hurt and I'm still too confused. We-we can't do this right now. I promised Takahata I wouldn't."

Asuna looked at him brokenly for a long silent moment as the truth in his words slowly penetrated her pleasure soaked brains, "I-I'm sorry..."

_**Nobody wants to be the last one there  
And everyone wants to feel like someone cares  
Somebody else that feels the same somewhere  
There's gotta be somebody for me out there**_

His arms rewrapped around her waist, careful to avoid any unnecessary contact, "I-I'm sorry too. We have too much baggage to do this properly. You don't deserve that and frankly it would kill me if that came back to hurt you in the future."

The red head sniffed loudly and blew her nose on his shirt, prompting a semi loud protest. She laughed slightly before sobering up and leaned into his muscled torso, "Friends?"

Naruto nodded before whispering again, "Friends," then he added almost desperately, "But I'll always love you more than one no matter what."

_**'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there  
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares  
Someone to love with my life in their hands  
There's gotta be somebody for me like that**_

It sounded utterly hypocritical considering what he had said to her barely seconds ago, but at that point in time he really couldn't bring himself to care anymore.

She hummed into his chest, fair enough. She could wait till he dealt with his issues, and he would wait till she dealt with hers.

Naruto just tiredly leaned back into the seat facing the window while Asuna curled up sideways on his lap, allowing silence to fill the room once more.

_**Tonight, out on the street, out in the moonlight  
And you know this feels too right  
It's just like déjà vu  
Me standing here with you**_

The slow and steady rhythm of his heart beat and breathing that combined with his warmth sang an effective lullaby to the red headed girl and it didn't take long before she could barely keep her eyes open anymore. The steady beat and the warmth was like listening to the ocean waves, a soothing repetitive sounds and the warm sunlight, made her body feel too heavy to do anything but sleep, especially after the extremely hectic and stressful day filled with battles, both physical and emotional.

"Naruto?" She quietly murmured after a while.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you feel so different?"

"Huh?"

She nuzzled into his chest, "Last time you were cuddly, but not so cuddly."

His eyebrow twitched, was she implying he was getting fat?

"Last time big, but angry, fierce, scary presence. Now not so scary. Just big. Just there, like mountain." Asuna mumbled.

The blonde wondered what she meant, but before he could ask her insensible mumbling turned into quiet snores.

He tried to get up and put her to bed but the girl whimpered and tightened her grip around him, causing him to stiffen. Slowly he moved again but she whimpered louder. Giving up, he just fell back into the sofa, resigning himself to a long and quite frankly torturous night.

Why wouldn't it be? A soft and incredibly warm girl that he was incredibly attracted to was sleeping on his lap, her arms wound around his neck tightly and he couldn't make a damned move. Naruto suppressed a groan as she shifted on his lap.

His boner from earlier wasn't helping matters.

This was divine retribution. He just knew it.

******Broken Faith******

"Asuna~~!"

The red haired girl tiredly lifted her head up and stared blearily at her roommate, "What is it Konoka?"

"It's been four days since your confession and you're still sulking?"

"I-I'm not sulking..." Asuna averted her eyes, she was sulking, and she knew it. But it wasn't for the reason that Konoka thought it was. She still remembered what happened in the room with Naruto, and she was incredibly ashamed. Especially when she remembered thinking that she would wait for him. The next morning had been incredibly awkward between the two of them, especially when she woke up because something hard was poking her rear end. That being said, she could honestly say she had never felt so safe and warm in her sleep. Gah! Indecent!

Luckily Negi had asked both of them to come to the resort immediately because there was something important going on, and they both took it as a chance to try and reduce the tension between them.

It didn't work.

The two of them had yet to hold a proper conversation, even after four days in Evangeline's resort.

Although that was mostly because Naruto seemed to be too busy brooding about what Negi told them rather than making any real effort in avoiding her.

And that stung.

Aarghh! Why was she thinking about that idiot again!

What was wrong with her? She had just got rejected and not even one day later she went and kissed another guy, even if said guy had no problems openly admitting he liked her romantically. If someone had asked her even two months ago, she would have said that even if Takahata-sensei had rejected her, she would have remained faithful to him. So what had happened to that faithfulness? She even went as far as to even consider about waiting for Naruto. And if that wasn't bad enough, despite her emotional instability at the time, she knew she had really meant those words. Guilt and shame raged in her at shifting her affections to someone else so fast. It wasn't really love yet, but she could honestly say that she was physically attracted to him in the safety of her mind, and all of that just made her feel even more indecent.

Oh Kami, what was wrong with her?

Hormones?

"Come on, Negi wants to hold a meeting about what we should do about Chao-san."

She shook her head clear of the weird direction her thoughts seemed to be going in lately and tiredly plodded alongside Konoka to where the rest of those who apparently knew about magic were frolicking in the artificial sunlight.

She chided herself silently because the first thing she did when she walked into the sunlight was look for the blonde.

Naruto seemed to be missing again.

"...suna... Asuna!"

Asuna snapped out of her daze to see the rest of them looking at her in concern, "Are you really sure you're alright?"

Asuna laughed nervously, "Ye-yeah, I was just thinking about something. Don't worry about me."

Negi looked at her dubiously for a moment before speaking again, "We were just strategising to see what kind of combat capabilities we have, if it really comes down to fighting Chao-san."

Asuna tilted her head curiously, "Combat capabilities? Oh, you mean our Pactios? Adeat!" she waved her Harisen around listlessly.

Konoka glanced at her paper fan curiously, "Why does your pactio seem to change shape on its own? I know Naruto can change his on command, but yours doesn't seem to work that way."

Asuna frowned, she had never really thought about it before either, "Dunno... whenever I need something stronger the sword seems to appear automatically. It should be fine I guess," She made a strained smile, "Besides comparing mine to Naruto's is rather insulting. He's pretty much an oddball so I expect his pactios are just as odd as him."

"I guess..."

The discussion from there on started to bore Asuna so she listened with half an ear while looking around for the blonde ninja, only perking up when she heard the blonde's name being mentioned by Chamo.

"What about Naruto-sama? Has he said anything about this yet?"

Negi scratched his cheek, "Not really, but he seems rather reluctant to fight Chao-san. Maybe he knows her?"

"It's not that I know her. It's more that I don't really see a problem in what she's doing."

All of them swivelled around to see the blonde in a pair of cargo pants step out of the shadows.

Asuna bristled, "What do you mean you don't see a problem? She's trying to hurt Negi, and she already tried to do worse to Takahata-sensei!"

Naruto waved her off, "I know that, but from a purely logical standpoint, her goals do have merit, obviously something bad enough happened in the future and it managed to force her to go such extreme measures to avoid it. So her ultimate goal would be changing something in history, exposing the magical world is merely one step in her grand plan. But that is inconsequential right now." He gave them a troubled look, "Without more information, I can't find a reason good enough to justify fighting her."

Negi spoke up, "But she's trying to expose the magical world to everybody else!"

"And? What's wrong with that?"

Naruto sighed as he saw Negi try to think of a reason, "You grew up knowing that the Magical World is kept a secret from the normal people. Its tradition, so I know it's hard for you to imagine otherwise. But on the other hand, do you remember your Stan-jiji?" the blonde asked evenly.

Negi narrowed his eyes at the blonde, "Yes? Why? You agree with her about going back in time to stop it?"

Naruto paused, "Hmmm... She said something like that? So I was right about history being her main goal..." he snapped out of his musings, "Nevermind, what I wanted to ask was if the Normal World had something that could heal him, would you say that you would do anything in your power to obtain that something?"

"Of course!"

Naruto gazed impassively at his adopted brother, "Then what makes you so different from the people in the Normal World who are desperately wishing they had magic so that they could heal **their** loved ones? That's not all. Water mages can create rain easily; think off what that can do for the agriculture sector in dry areas. Fire mages could potentially resolve the fossil fuel problem, Lightning mages are walking generators and Earth mages could be pretty good builders. People will resist and there will be repercussions at first of course, that is something inevitable and typical to any kind of revolution, it goes against what they've grown up knowing after all but sooner or later they will probably come around... so it averages out."

Asuna growled as Negi was struck speechless, "If you agree with her then why don't you go and side with her?"

Naruto just gave Asuna a sad look, "I'm not just siding with her; I'm just being the Devil's Advocate here. There are negatives in her plans as well obviously. No one wants to admit it but mages who abuse their power on normal people from time to time aren't that uncommon, that's what people like me and Takahata are sent on missions for, to enforce the laws. For example, the memory erase spell is a standard spell that every magic prep school teaches. Now imagine if everybody had access to that spell, the judicial system would be wrecked. Someone could just walk into the bank, cast the spell on everybody present, steal their money and just walk out of the bank. Then look at what Negi, a 10 year old boy is capable off; large scale lightning attacks, powerful wind spells... Now imagine two idiots fighting on that scale for some petty reason and accidentally causing immense collateral damage without restraint. Unless Chao has some sort of safety net in place for eventualities like that, the social system will sooner or later collapse into a 'Might makes Right' situation." he finished his statement ominously before walking back into the resort calmly, leaving everybody to suddenly doubt their own reasons for fighting while Asuna just glared at his back.

Negi nudged Konoka, "Neh, Konoka, whats wrong with Asuna and Naruto-nii san? Something's going on between the both of them. I've never seen Asuna act like that."

Konoka narrowed her eyes at the seething red head, "I don't know, but I plan to find out."

Chamo scratched his chin thoughtfully, "It seems like we can't depend on Naruto-sama for this fight until he finds a reason. That seriously brings down the firepower available to us... we have to rearrange the front lines..." the ermine continued to mumble all sorts of stratagems and formations with everyone else while Konoka grabbed Asuna by the arm and dragged her to quiet corner.

"What is wrong with you?" the princess hissed at her roommate, "You got angry at Naruto without any real reason. It was like you just wanted to pick a fight with him."

The angry look on her face immediately fell and was replaced by one of shame, "I-I'm sorry... I..."

Konoka relented and sat beside the morose girl, "What's wrong Asuna?"

The answer came out in barely a whisper and Konoka had to strain herself to hear it, "I was jealous."

"Of **what**?" Konoka asked bewilderedly.

"He was protecting Chao, and then it was like a switch just flipped."

"Asuna..." Konoka immediately realized what her roommate was implying and pulled the morose girl into a hug.

"What's wrong with me Konoka? I like Takahata-sensei, but then I get rejected and suddenly I get jealous like that."

Konoka just silently patted her friends back soothingly, "I can't answer something like this for you; you need to find out what your heart really wants for yourself."

Asuna sniffed, "Thanks Konoka."

"That's what best friends are for, right?" Konoka grinned at her.

"Yeah." Then suddenly Asuna thought of something and stared at her with something resembling horror, "Wait, why are you even comforting me? This is **your **boyfriend we're talking about here!"

This time Konoka pointed a finger at her, "Wait! How did you even know we were dating?"

Asuna rolled her eyes, "After Naruto lost his arm and we visited him, you came out slower than me and Setsuna, and you were a lot more relaxed." Then Asuna leaned forward and sniffed Konoka's miko uniform, "Then there's the fact that your perfume is pretty unique and yesterday night he had the smell of your perfume all over him."

"What were you doing with him yesterday night?"

Asuna blushed and mumbled, "He was uh... comforting me." She rolled her eyes again at Konoka's knowing chuckle, "Enough with the creepy laugh, you still haven't answered me, why aren't you angry?"

Konoka's grin was pretty scary for such a small girl, "Fufufufu, it's not like I mind having an extra person around to... play with."

Asuna shivered and squirmed, Konoka's hug was starting to get rather... touchy. Internally she was troubled.

Even if Konoka and Chachamaru were ok with sharing him...

She wasn't sure she could do the same as evidenced by her jealous spike from earlier.

******With Naruto******

Meanwhile inside the resort, another conversation was taking place, "What's wrong Naruto? You're not usually one to let something like right or wrong bother you."

Said blonde leaned back into a sofa and pinned the vampire with an intense stare, "If it were that simple it wouldn't be a problem. Besides there's no right or wrong, good or evil in a situation like this. Just me and you, my pride against hers. Chicken and egg. And I've been in situations like this more times than I care to count, however all those only have something to do with exposing the magical world and is periphery to her ultimate goal at best; changing history. So I'll most likely follow whatever Negi does anyway. No, the problem is, something doesn't feel right, it's too convenient. I'm missing something."

Sometimes Evangeline forgot just how sharp the ninja could be under his idiotic tendencies.

"I see... why don't you do what I'm doing? I don't plan on interfering at all."

Naruto smiled, "I could do that, but like I said, it's too convenient. Maybe I'm just being presumptuous and I'm not really a factor at all, but it's as if she _wants _me to sit this out by making sure there's no right or wrong, and by doing that, it'll guarantee I participate in one way or another. Plus she has been here for two years and made a very strong power base. A **power** base in only **two **years. She could have waited longer and strengthened her position even further to guarantee a victory without all this elaborate fuss, yet she didn't. She chose this particular time to do this, so I have to assume that either the Festival or the Tree and by association, my awakening, will be involved in one way or another to a certain degree. Her actions so far have confirmed as much. The way I see it, this exposing the Magical World thing is nothing more than an elaborate gambit to suck us all into a confrontation."

His thousand yards stare intensified, "The question is why?"

Evangeline snorted in amusement, "No wonder Rakan told you to quit thinking, you're even worse than Negi when it comes down to it."

Naruto smiled faintly, "That is, of course another option." He waved it off, "Don't tell Negi what I said though. This is something I want them to learn; I want to see what they do when there is no right or wrong, good or evil." Naruto scratched his head, "Oh, and try not to break him too much." He added as an afterthought.

"Do I even want to know how you can guess what I'm planning?" she glared at him, "You didn't read my mind did you?"

"What? Don't be dumb, I don't need something like that to guess what you're planning for tonight. You care too much for him to let it go like that."

Evangeline humphed and tried to salvage her dignity as a fearsome dark mage.

Naruto chuckled at her radiant blush.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto was about to step through the portal back into Evangeline's cabin when he felt someone tug at his sleeve. Glancing back over his shoulder he was surprised to see the person who stopped him was none other than Asuna. He looked around and realized they were the two only ones left, the rest had already portalled back.

"Is something wrong Asuna?" He asked worriedly.

Asuna shot him a nervous and unsure look, "You're not angry with me?"

He cocked his head, "Why would I be angry with you?"

Asuna frowned and directed her gaze to her toes, "I shouted at you about Chao remember?"

"Oh that, I didn't expect any less from you. I was defending someone that hurt those important to you after all. It was only natural."

Asuna didn't know whether she should be angry that he brushed it off so easily or relieved he didn't seem to mind.

"Just don't forget sometimes there's a lot more colours than just white and black."

"Huh?"

Naruto smiled before leaning down to kiss her cheek, "Just be yourself, don't let your courage waver over the small stuff. Be the straightforward you that protects those important to her no matter what. Negi will need that quality of yours before the day is over."

The blonde left the stunned girl behind and stepped into the portal and was immediately teleported away in a brief flash of light.

By the time he stepped out, the rest where nowhere to be seen, so he waited for Asuna to arrive.

When Asuna appeared in a flash of light she found a very serious looking blonde, "Naruto? What's wrong?"

Naruto pointed at something stuck on the resort's globe, "I think we might be in trouble."

Asuna looked at he was pointing and her jaw dropped, it was a note from Chao herself with the words 'Thanks for the Victory' written on it.

Rapidly formed hand seals and a flare of chakra heralded the creation of twenty clones, "10 of you go find everyone and get them back here immediately. Everyone else goes out and gets information. Something changed. I want to know what, when and how." He rapidly fired orders at his equally solemn clones.

The why and who were moot points.

He in turn walked back into the teleportation circle, when it failed to activate he sighed, "I should have known you were up to something."

The first clones started popping and Naruto groaned. "What's wrong Naruto? Who's up to something?" Asuna repeated her earlier question, her confusion mounting by the second.

"Everyone needs to get here first, there's no point repeating this." Asuna followed Naruto into the main hall to see everyone except Negi already there. Kaede spoke first, "What is wrong Naruto-dono? Your clones were unusually serious."

"We were tricked. Chao managed to win the war before we could even do anything."

Everyone started to yell almost at once until Chisame spoke quietly, managing to silence all of them at once since no one expected her to agree, "Namikaze-san is right."

She fixed her glasses and spun her laptop around so that everyone around the table could see it, "Look at the date."

It was her blog.

It was currently dated June 30th.

"One week after the Festival?" Nodoka quietly squeaked.

Naruto nodded, "I found a note stuck on Evangeline's Resort. Chao managed to make sure we were stuck in there for one week. The war is already over."

He didn't want to say that Evangeline had been helping Chao all along.

Suddenly a loud crack and a yellow flash startled all of them; they all turned to look at Naruto. Seeing them beginning to open their mouths and ask what just happened, he halted them, "No time. I'm just a clone. The other clones just found out that all of us are wanted criminals now. And Negi was just caught. The original just teleported to him to buy us more time and information. For now everyone will have to remain here where it's safest."

Everyone paced around, filled with nervous energy, the cabin silent and tense.

Setsuna broke the silence, "We should look at that note Naruto-sensei said he found. If anything it might have a clue of some sort."

Everyone shared a look before trooping into the teleportation room and gathered around the orb that contained the Resort, Asuna was the first to recognize the paper, "Ah, that's the kind of paper mages use to send messages to each other. It can display some sort of 3-D image."

She pressed play and they were all treated to a tiny hologram of Chao telling them about the trap and gloating that she had managed to win without fighting them.

Suddenly they heard the squeaking of a door's hinges, all of them immediately ran back into the hall and found a panting Chamo lugging the Cassiopeia behind him. All them gulped at his first words, "Naruto-sama and Aniki were captured. Naruto-sama tried to tell them to take only him because he was the one that personally vouched for Chao before this happened. But the dark skinned mage refused. They had to surrender because they didn't want to fight mages from Mahora but he managed to create a diversion long enough for me to escape with the time machine for some reason."

Somebody cleared his throat and they all spun around to see the smirking clone of Naruto. Before any of them could ask why he was smirking he pulled a three pronged blade and started fiddling with it.

"What are you doing Naruto-dono?"

"The boss sent a message; he's going to try get as much information as possible. He'll take care of Negi, so you guy's shouldn't worry."

The blonde finished by stabbing the blade into the wooden surface of the table and a voice suddenly spoke, _"Normally, even if somebody got onto national television and shouted something like 'Mages Exist', most people wouldn't believe and would just brush it off as a joke and we have agencies as well organizations that dealt with matters like this."_

"That's Seryuhiko-sensei!"

"Yeah, the boss rigged the blades so he could sense anything around them when he threw them. Fiddle with them a bit and we can also hear the sounds around the blade. But it's only one way at the moment."

"_Unfortunately, Chao-san used the latent magic that the World Tree expelled during the Mahora Fest to cast a worldwide 'Forced Recognition Magic'."_ Another voice picked up where Seryuhiko left off.

"That's Gandolfini-sensei." Konoka whispered as the voices continued to come out of the blade.

"_The spell basically means Chao hypnotized everyone into believing magic exists. At exactly 7.37 p.m. of June 22__nd__, Chao managed to completely conquer all six of the 'Magic Concentration Points', the spots where confessions were forbidden to happen, with an army of robots. Once those were under her control, they resonated with another 12 'Magical Concentration Points' around the world, giving her sufficient magical energy to cast a worldwide spell. Along with the extra unbelievable images and videos of the Tournament on the web, we couldn't do anything to stop it. By the time a week passed, most of the school believed it, after a month; the country, and in half a year; the whole world will know about magic."_

******Broken Faith******

**Play Nickelback – If Today Was Your Last Day**

Naruto leaned back into his seat casually as Gandolfini and Seryuhiko left him with Negi and Takahata.

Takahata cleared his throat, "So? What are your plans now?" the question was directed at Naruto but Negi replied, "I cant give up. I just can't..." Negi perked up, "I was serious about the time machine that Chao-san gave me! I can go back in time to change things Takahata-sensei! You have to believe me!"

Takahata looked sadly at Negi before looking at Naruto, the blonde simply nodded to confirm Negi's statement.

"I see... do you have it now?"

Naruto spoke, "No, I told Chamo to take it with him and escape, I didn't want the other mages finding out too soon. They might use it for something else. To be honest though, I'm might be a little vexed that after all that thinking and planning, everything comes out to a grand total of nothing. But in the end what's done is done, I'm a little relieved I didn't have to choose. Things may seem a little bad now, but once they get used to it and the punishments are over, no one will care, it might even make things better. Isn't that right Michi?"

"Nii-san! How could you say that! I... I know that Chao-san might have good reasons for doing this but I don't believe forcing everyone to believe about magic like this is right! Even if it's only a small possibility I want to fight for it!"

"I understand your feelings Negi..." Takahata softly interrupted him, "But you have to understand. Staying here in Mahora, laughing and smiling with your students, it's easy to forget sometimes that reality isn't that nice. Poverty, corruption, unnecessary deaths, they are all very common and a lot of mages do everything they can to help while staying in the shadows, but we are limited in what we can do because of the Secrecy Act. It might seem like this is a bad idea at first, but without the need for secrecy, instead of sitting around and watching people get hurt, now we can openly go out and help people. That's... where I hesitated and Chao managed to take advantage of it."

"But... " Negi looked down dejectedly.

Takahata lips lifted slightly, "I didn't mean to confuse you, it's not like her plan doesn't have holes. It's just that my frustration hindered me at the last second. Even with all her plans for damage control, she cannot control people's emotions, discrimination and racism are beginning to spread and there is now an increasing rift between the Mundane people and the Mages. The normal people are afraid because of what we can do. On the flip side of the coin, a part of the Mages are afraid because there are too many people to fight, the other part are so drunk in their superiority they feel like it's their right to rule over the normal people now that there are no laws to hide from, and some just don't care, simply wanting to go back to their normal lives. Tensions between both parties are beginning to spiral out of control, which is why all of us are being shipped back to the Magical World; to give things time to simmer down. I hope that might help you reach a decision."

Negi clenched his fist and looked up, "Thank you Takahata-sensei, for everything. I'm sorry but I can't just sit by and let this happen knowing I might be able to stop it. I'm so scared, thinking that maybe I'm the one that is wrong, that in the future, what I did would be what caused a lot of problems. That her choice might have been the better one and someone might die because of my selfishness. I know what I'm doing is selfish, so stupidly selfish that I'm ashamed of myself, but this happy life with my students, I want to preserve it, if I let what Chao wants happen, those happy days will end. So I will do whatever I can. Even if Naruto-nii san won't help me, I'll do it alone!"

There was a slight pause where Takahata simply smiled in pride.

The silence was broken when Naruto snorted, "And there you have it girls. Negi wants to go back in time. We're at the base of the World Tree. Get here as soon as possible."

Takahata looked at him strangely while Negi stuttered, "Huh? Ni-nii-san? What are you talking about?"

The blonde stabbed a three pronged blade onto the table, "The girls have heard everything we've been saying through this thing. I have no doubt they are already on their way here." He looked at Takahata, "Will you be stopping us?"

The teacher shrugged, "Why are you asking me? As someone who lost to a 15 year old girl, I don't really think I have a right to stop you two."

"Ni-nii-nii san? I-I thought you didn't care?"

Naruto shrugged and gave him a sincere smile, "I still don't. Like Rakan said I think too much, I cannot choose because to me they are both the same thing. Sometimes it's better to just charge ahead believing only in yourself. Which is why I will follow what you chose. Even if in the future destiny proves to us that we were wrong. Isn't that what family is for?"

Negi's eyebrow twitched slightly, if he wasn't wrong Naruto had just subtly called him stupid, before letting out a small relieved chuckle, "Then we can depend on you?"

"Meh. Within reason. I'm not going to fight your battles for you. Shut up Michi." He glared at the laughing older man.

A loud explosion caused the whole area to rumble.

"Wha-what was that?" Negi asked shakily.

"I think the girls are here." Naruto said with a smirk.

Negi rushed out the door, leaving Takahata behind alone with Naruto.

The spectacled teacher brought out a cigarette before passing another stick to the blonde, "What's your real reason for doing this Naruto? You were a little too blasé."

The blonde drew a quick breath on the tobacco stick and smirked, "Chao wants a fight. She's expecting us to come back in time. That's the only reason I can think of that explains everything she has done; the note she left behind to aggravate us, the time machine she gave to Negi. Everything is a huge ass trap. What for? Not a clue, how do I find out? By playing into her trap. What's the best way of countering a trap?"

Takahata nodded, "Setting it off on your terms instead of hers. But I wasn't referring to that."

"Oh? I assume you mean the chances of the entire universe collapsing or something?"

"Exactly. All of you came out of the Resort one week into the future where Chao succeeded. Before there wasn't any problem because you and Negi didn't go back in time far enough or change history enough to matter, Negi A went back in time to become Negi B, then Negi B took his place and time continued normally. But this time, assuming you manage to go back in time to before you enter the Resort and change history, the versions of you in that time are still in the resort. When they come out they will have no reason to turn back time and I doubt two versions of the same people can exist simultaneously. At the same time, if you do that, this reality will either cease to exist or split off into another dimension altogether."

"He is my brother." Naruto said simply, "I may not be related to him by blood but if he wants to jump into a deep hole I can't do any less but follow him in with a smile on my face and make sure he doesn't go splat on the other end."

Takahata took another draw from his stick and nodded in understanding.

"Will you be coming?"

The teacher winced, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright I understand. Even if this reality may fail to exist, you want to take the chance to see if you can help more openly now that the secrecy restrictions are gone. I'd be frustrated too if I were in your shoes." Naruto patted his shoulder sympathetically before squashing the cigarette underfoot and striding out the door with one last call over his shoulder, "If you see another version of me in this dimension again, be sure to say hi."

"Will do."

"Don't forget you still owe him dinner for the next month for that bet you made either."

Takahata snorted.

******With Negi******

"Eh!" Negi exclaimed, "You're sure this will work?"

Chamo scratched his chin, "We're pretty sure. Although we'll have to hope that the World Tree still has enough power to allow us to travel back in time."

"That won't be a problem. The World Tree's luminescence and my chakra are very similar in nature. As long as I make contact with the core and pour it in, the tree should be able to convert the chakra enough for the plan to work."

"Naruto!" All of them exclaimed.

Said blonde gave them all a lopsided grin even as Konoka and Asuna jumped on him, "I'm glad you're ok" the red head whispered quietly.

"Did you really expect otherwise?"

Asuna humphed.

"Come on, let's go, don't waste any more time then we have to."

All of them ran into a dark tunnel, it was a few minutes of sprinting before the tunnel slowly brightened. "There!" Yue shouted, her finger pointing towards some glowing roots, "We can make it!"

Negi grinned and looked at the watch, it was ticking again, "Alright! We just need to go in further where the energy density is high enough for this to work, we've succeeded!" Just then the ticking stopped.

Naruto sighed, "Did you really have to tempt fate Negi?"

"Oh no!" Nodoka squeaked, the glowing in the roots was fading bit by bit.

"No time, you can scold me about fate later nii-san." He started running again, "Let's go!"

"Shit! Negi duck!"

Negi instinctively obeyed his brother's shout and dropped to the ground just in time for a spiked tail to pass the spot where his torso had been a split second ago.

Naruto flashed forward and grabbed the flailing tail barehanded before it could squish Nodoka, "Get out of here!"

"Nii-san! Naruto!"

Footsteps started to echo down the tunnel and the sounds of shouting voices reached them.

"Bu-but Nii-san!"

"Grrr!" Naruto growled at him, "LOOK AT THAT GLOW! IT'S DISAPPEARING, NOW GET OUT OF HERE! I'LL CATCH UP!"

"Rrgggh!" Ducking a huge jaw that barely clamped around his head, the blonde heaved and lifted the entire dragon, body and all, by the tail before throwing it back down the tunnel where they had came from. The dragon crash landed with a yelp but Naruto didn't bother to spare the dragon a glance as he immediately flooded the tunnel with water and froze it into a wall before speeding down the tunnel amidst the earth shaking roars of anger, following the trail that Negi had gone down scant seconds ago.

A huge crashing sound from behind told him the wall hadn't managed to stall the beast by much.

"Nii-san! The lights are fading too fast!" a shout from ahead floated back down the winding tunnel to reach his ears. Grumbling he started to rapidly flare a huge amount of his chakra in the hopes that it might work even a little even as his legs never stopped pumping.

Leaping up to avoid a huge burst of dragon fire that left a charred crater, the blonde stuck to the ceiling instead and ran upside down towards the prick of light that signalled the end of the tunnel, behind the dragon's every step shook the tunnel while mages took pot shots at him from between the dragon's legs.

The dragon roared loudly, causing the tunnel to shake and nearly dislodged Naruto from the ceiling.

Naruto jumped clear of the tunnel entrance just as another burst of wild dragon fire incinerated the spot where he had been, ahead of him he could already see Negi and everyone else linking hands and slowly starting to glow.

"Ni-san!" Negi yelled worriedly as the dragon jumped into the air, spreading it's huge wings and crashing onto Naruto.

"Coming!" Naruto yelled back as he neatly side stepped a huge paw only for the tail to slam into him while he was distracted, spikes slashing his chest badly. Naruto crashed into the ground, winded and feeling as if he had just been hit by a speeding truck.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Naruto glared at the overgrown dragon, "Gah! That's it you annoying lizard, Naruto Namikaze Original Combo : Iron Wall!"

Naruto jumped head on at the dragon with an angry roar.

And everyone watching face faulted.

A brief history lesson; dragons are all known as huge awe or fear inspiring creatures that generally came in as many varieties as there were colours. Some were huge, some were winged, some had spikes, and some breathed fire or even acid, and many other fearsome abilities that could cause untold amounts of pain. In short, dragons were awesome natural born predators that came equipped with every advantage imaginable that Nature itself saw fit to give them. But the most common thing among all dragons were their incredibly tough bodies, diamond hard scales that covered them from head to toe, their damn near invulnerability to anything but the most powerful magic, powerful lean muscles, and a skeletal structure that is as light as it is strong. The fact that they only grew more powerful the older they got didn't help matters.

That particular Dragon was seven hundred and ninety years old.

So while half of everybody, Negi, the girls and the mages assembled to stop them, was watching in shock as Naruto sailed through the air before thoroughly bashing his forehead onto the dragon's huge skull; the other half were already planning his funeral.

The dragon lost.

Only Chisame managed to say something as the dragon toppled over backwards in slow motion with its eyes crossed, "Iron Wall my ass! That was just a normal head butt!"

"Ha-Hasegawa-san... that's not really the problem here..." Asuna said sheepishly.

"Pfft, after everything I've seen so far, an idiot that can jump 50 feet into the air and head butt a dragon that is more than seven times bigger than him into a concussion is nothing! **It's normal! Normal! Right!**" Chisame practically screamed as she gestured wildly at the blonde who happened to be walking towards them casually and dusting his clothes off.

The self proclaimed 'most normal member of everyone present' would have sounded a lot more convincing if it didn't sound like she was trying to persuade herself as well.

"I know how you feel," Asuna said as she patted Chisame's shoulder sympathetically with a commiserating expression on her face, spectacled girl had started out rather calmly but by the end of her sentence her voice was rather strained and she sounded more than a little hysterical.

Everyone else sweat dropped at her as the girl continued to rant about how **normal** people could fly and shoot beams of mass destruction, and wondered if they should just erase her memories. She was clearly cracking**.**

"Nii-san!" An urgent yell grabbed everyone's attention from the drama between and Chisame, even the mages from behind the unconscious dragon, "We're disappearing hurry up!"

The blonde lunged from his spot with one hand outstretched; Negi's lower half was already fading away in the light.

Negi barely managed to grasp Naruto's hand before they all disappeared, but not before Naruto managed to flip them off with a huge grin, much to the remaining mages' chagrin.

******Broken Faith******

When they finally landed Naruto nudged Negi in the side and discreetly pointed at the still ranting Chisame, "What's wrong with the girl?"

"She's uh... a little uh... I dunno?"

"Why does she keep repeating 404 over and over again?"

"Err...She..."

"Speak up bro, can't hear you."

"I... " Negi swayed on his feet before pitching forward in a dead faint.

"Negi!"

The resident Ninja caught the smaller boy and lowered his body onto the ground before checking his vitals, "It's alright and he's just exhausted. He used a lot of power to bring all of us back in time."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, including Chisame, "We need to get to a safe place so he can rest."

"A-ano... we can use the library... I don't think anyone will go there today and any library related events are held at Library Island..." Nodoka timidly squeaked.

Naruto hefted Negi up in his arms, "Alright. Lead the way."

"Ha-hai."

******Broken Faith******

Naruto leaned back into his chair and sipped from a cup of tea.

"You sure you don't have to be with Negi while his healing?"

The blonde shrugged at the question, "There's no point. At this point in time, Chao is geared up for a big finale. She won't do anything to jeopardize that. Besides I don't want to take charge of operations. I'll let Negi deal with that and just help out a bit."

Albiero observed his relaxed friend for a few more moments, "You are that confident that he will pull through?"

The shinobi scratched his chin in thought, "Well, not confident per se. I just want to see what he will do before I put my own plan into action. Chao supposedly utilized more than 2000 robots and 6 super sized ones to take control of the World Tree, while she herself challenged the teachers." He gazed thoughtfully into his cup, "Under that scenario, if this were truly a trap, it wouldn't be strange to say if she already expected us to come back, those forces in the future were ones that she could afford to show us as a diversion because we were not there to challenge her."

The robed man nodded, "I see... so you are saying that it is likely her forces then were simply an illusion and that since she knows that Negi and you will challenge her, her real forces will make an appearance."

"Something like that. I expect Negi to prepare for the 2000, but I doubt he realizes there might be reinforcements." Naruto grinned briefly, "That's where I come in, I suppose."

"Oh? You have an army?"

"Something like that." Naruto replied with a casual smile.

Albiero groaned at him, "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate it when you are being vague on purpose just so that you can enjoy watching people around you fluster?"

"Hello Mr. Pot, my name is Mr. Kettle. And we're both black."

"Touché."

******Broken Faith******

Asuna swallowed the lump in her throat and forcibly forced down her pride as KuFei charged into the classroom where the Haunted House was being held, "Iincho~~ Asuna-san has a favour to ask you!"

The red head felt like banging something, hard, why did the girl have to pick those words?

"Hoh? Asuna wants something from me?" Ayaka said as she started laughing her typical ojou-sama laugh, Asuna growled and swallowed another lump again, "That's right! Is that a problem?"

The blonde and the red head clashed, "Is that how you ask for favours hmm? Maybe I shouldn't have expected polite manners from someone like you!"

"Grr! You got no right saying anything like that you shotacon! Anyway it's a damn emergency, just shut up and help!"

"Beg!"

"Die!"

"Grr..." Ayaka huffed and crossed her arms across her chest indignantly, "So? What is this favour the great Asuna needs from little ol me?"

The red head flushed and averted her eyes, mumbling something under her breath, causing Ayaka to huff again, "What is that? I can't hear you! Speak louder!"

When her mumbles didn't get any louder, the curious blonde leant forward and listened to the mumbling carefully, her eyes widening with every sentence that came out of Asuna, "Wha-what! I can't do something unreasonable like that! Sure the Yukihiro group has got money and they can control events like that but... but..." Ayaka spluttered impotently, "I CANT DO IT! It'll make me seem like some arrogant rich ojou! You know how much I hate that!"

Asuna yelled back, "I know you don't like it but that's why I'm asking for you to bend a little here! I even tried to ask politely!"

"What the hell does a monkey like you know about polite!"

It didn't take long for the bickering to descend into an all out cat fight between Asuna and Ayaka.

KuFei sweat dropped and tapped Ayaka's shoulder, "Ano... we know we're asking a lot, but this is a favour for Negi-sensei you know?"

Ayaka immediately stopped gnawing on the red head's arm and untangled herself from Asuna, her previously messed up clothes and hair were suddenly miraculously pristine again, the blonde girl was even sparkling, "Ohoho, why didn't you say so earlier? For Negi-sensei I'll do anything, even drink a whole lake!" having said her part, she suddenly gripped Asuna and KuFei's arms and yanked them out of class, "Come with me and tell me exactly what Negi-sensei needs somewhere more private."

The two girls yelped as they were pulled along by an unnaturally strong and enthusiastic Iincho into an abandoned classroom, where Asuna grudgingly laid out Negi's plan while rubbing her bicep where it was sore because of Ayaka's strong grip.

"...And there you have it. We're sorry for imposing so much but this is really important and things need to happen this way."

Ayaka eyed her fidgeting friend with one squinted eye for a moment before sighing, "Alright, I'll do my best, but you owe me for this."

"Wha-what? Why should I owe you? Shouldn't it be Negi?"

Ayaka smirked, "Just because." She pretended to swoon, "Negi-sensei is too perfect to owe me anything, so a monkey like you will have to do."

"Grrr! You're looking for a fight aren't you!" Asuna yelled as KuFei dragged her out from the classroom while bowing politely.

Once the yelling from Asuna slowly receded from the hallways and was gone entirely, the blonde heiress quietly wilted into her chair and wondered how to get everything prepared as requested with a quiet dejected sigh.

"You sure you can handle something like this?"

Ayaka yelped and jumped out of her chair in surprise and spun around only to see another blonde leaning on the wall casually, placing one hand on her heaving chest Ayaka managed to growl out, "Will you stop doing that? Why do you keep trying to surprise me!"

Naruto shrugged, "Hearing you yelp like that is adorable."

Ayaka growled again and started to pummel him, causing the other blonde to chuckle and evade her fists. Giving up, Ayaka slumped back into her chair and the mood turned serious once again.

"You haven't answered me. You sure you can do this? You can't really ask your father for the money to do something like this can't you?"

Ayaka avoided eye contact with the other blonde and tried to casually wave his question off, "I... I have the money myself so I'm not worried about that," she chewed her lower lip cutely, "What I'm worried about is if my Father hears about this. He doesn't know I have the money and if I do something on this level, he'll guess that I have my own resources. He'll start pushing me to graduate earlier since he'll take it as a sign I'm ready to help my sister in the company."

Naruto blinked for a moment, she was lying about something. He was sure of it.

The blonde lowered her head and spoke shamefully, "I... I don't want to leave everyone here yet..."

"You can't do it without invoking the Yukihiro name?"

Ayaka shrugged helplessly, "They are one of the biggest sponsors for the Festival. If I ask the organizers, discretely or otherwise, he'll hear about it and if I don't; the words of a group of girls from middle school won't be enough to persuade them to do something on this level."

Naruto simply nodded but didn't voice his suspicion, besides he couldn't think of anything to help other than financially, "If you need more money, don't hesitate to ask."

Ayaka snorted, "Am I to believe that you have enough money to sponsor something big like this?"

Naruto draped his chin on her shoulder; two arms wrapped around her neck like a warm scarf and whispered into her ear, eliciting a shiver from the girl, "If it's for my fiancée, I'll find a way won't I? I don't want her leaving me because I'm poor after all."

Ayaka struggled out of his arms leapt away from the blonde, "Wh-who are you calling your fiancée you idiot! Hu-huh?"

Her supposed fiancée was no longer there, vanishing as if he were made of air, instead on the chair where she was sitting a second ago was a piece of paper with a phone number on it, she assumed it was the blonde's.

She couldn't help but shiver again, both from the sudden cold and the memory of his breath playing on her earlobes as she picked up the paper and carefully folded it.

"Idiot... why would I care about something like money?"

******Broken Faith******

Attention! Attention!" Yuna shouted.

"We have an announcement about the school festival's final day event!" Makie continued. The girls of 3-A were in various types of mage or nurse costumes and handing out flyers that had the new idea for what the entire campus was going to do. On the flyer it said "Mars Attack vs Mahora Mage Order". Everyone was whispering and talking to their friends with barely concealed excitement.

"...As stated above, this is the new plan for the final day event!" A blonde girl in an elaborate white mage costume with white feathers on the shoulders, sky blue breastplate, long white swirling skirt and a long staff declared loudly. "Now then we will be giving everyone here a demonstration!" ignoring the excited babble, Ayaka gave the ok to Makie who was wearing skimpy clothing meant to mimic a witch, but it looked more adorable than scary, and held a practice wand with a star on it. "This will be the equipment given to the people who want to join the game. There are various types as well, like a bazooka!. And since the robe serves as a safety device everyone must also wear one. The weapon here will be a mage's wand. Why don't you give us a demonstration?" Ayaka looked towards Makie who nodded.

"Ehm, Strike the enemy!" Makie exclaimed, as a white light shot out of her wand.

"This light does not affect the human body," Ayaka explained loudly. "Furthermore..." Behind her Yuna took a simple looking bazooka and shot another beam of light into the air, though more destructive. "We have other weapons such as bazookas. You can choose whatever you want as long as we have enough!"

A couple of feet away the class ghost and reporter were watching the events unfold; Kazumi even had a camcorder out. "This is getting interesting," the red head said with a smile.

"U-um, is it alright to not tell Chao-san about this?" Sayo asked her friend.

"Fufufu, Sayo-chan, I'm not really Chao's ally or anything. My duty ended with yesterday's announcer job. In return I already got all the facts from Chao about the current incident. All that's left is for me to get my material on the last day's event. Now the let's get ready too..OOF!" Kazumi suddenly bumped heads with someone. She was grabbing her aching nose and the other person was doing the same. When the person got a good look, she saw that it was Asuna.

"Asakura?" Asuna asked.

"Yo! If it isn't Asuna?" Kazumi greeted

"Eh...That reminds me! Yesterday you were the announcer of the tournament! That means you were working for Chao-san right! Weren't you supposed to be our ally?"

"Um..." Kazumi stuttered as she began to walk away from Asuna.

"Hohoho, Maybe I should teach you just exactly how much trouble we had to go through because of Chao-san?"

"Um no...Well if I had to say who's side I'm on I would say I'm an ally of justice..."

"Stop trying to look cool! You fail!"

"Geh!"

******Broken Faith******

F-Forced recognition magic against the entire world?" a mage teacher asked the headmaster as he was explaining the plan to the magical staff.

"Is something like that even possible?" Yuna's father, who was a mage teacher himself, continued on for the mage.

"We've underestimated her. Headmaster, where did you get this information?" Gandolfini inquired.

"The information source is irrelevant," Konoemon firmly rebuffed the question, not wanting information about time travel to get out. "What does matter is the fact that we must put a stop to this plan. I understand that everyone here is uncomfortable executing an operation of this degree without sufficient information but as mages, we cannot allow the public to find out about magic. Not before we can be sure there will be no adverse affects." Konoemon looked each mage in the eye firmly, quelling any arguments before continuing again, "That being said, I also understand a lot of you are uncomfortable about fighting nearly three thousand hostile enemies, especially with the public watching. That being the case, one of our own has put forth a valid suggestion, we will have the public participate in the fight as an active party without them knowing." The head master put up his hand as he saw some people about to protest the idea. "I know it's a pretty desperate idea, but this plan has been approved and comes with many safety measures. Rest assured everyone will be safe."

"It is true that our students like this sort of thing, and have the capabilities to do so. They might actually be surprisingly useful as a combat force," Seruhiko, one of the teachers who went to Kyoto with Negi and his group, mumbled quietly, the other mages who heard him started to mutter among themselves.

Konoemon smiled, their hesitance was faltering.

Someone behind the crowd who had been perusing the documents given to all the mages present suddenly exclaimed, "Wha-what is this? 6 gigantic life form weapons?"

"It seems that through a combination of magic and science, Chao has successfully managed to revive and control a few nameless demon lords that were petrified underneath the school," Toko Kuzunoha, Setsuna's sensei in her sword style when she moved to Mahora, explained. "We believe that the gigantic life forms to be some sort of amplifiers or switches that are important to the ritual. Should they appear too dangerous, we will get the students to stand down and retreat before our anti-demon forces take over."

Takane who had been quiet thus far suddenly spoke, "Will Naruto-sama be included in this operation?"

The dean looked at the tall blonde girl in surprise, he hadn't known that the girl and Naruto were acquaintances, "At the moment I haven't seen him yet but Negi assures me he will be fighting on our side. He seems to be doing something that will help us later."

With that said, everyone seemed to start having confidence in the wildly crazy plan, Konoemon tried to rally them even further, "Remember this; we have underestimated her for long enough, this plan of Chao-kun must be stopped. Support from the home country probably won't make it here in time either. Keep this in your minds as we fight: If we cannot stop Chao-kun's plan, the world will be changed. Everyone put your full effort into this operation!"

All of them stood up with their backs straight and a loud and overwhelming "Yes sir!" reverberated in Konoemon's office.

The wizened mage smiled at them gratefully.

******Broken Faith******

**Special Extra, RPG style.**

**Rank = Overall Combat Capabilities**

**Tofu Magician Mage Archmage**

**F E D C B A AA AAA S SS**

**Negi Springfield**

Class : Magic Duelist

Rank : B-class Mage

**Asuna Kagurazaki**

Class : Anti-magic Warrior

Rank : D-class to S-class Mage

**Konoka Konoemon**

Class : Squishy Witch

Rank : D-class mage.

Rank when pissed : AA-class mage

**Nodoka Miyakazaki**

Class : Mind Reader

Rank : B-class magician

**Haruna Saotome **

Class : Summoner

Rank : A-class magician

**Ayase Yue**

Class : Even Squishier Witch

Rank : A-class Tofu

**Chisame Hasegawa**

Class : Hacker

Rank : F-class Tofu

Rank on Internet : SS-class mage

**Setsuna Sakurazaki**

Class : Swordswoman

Rank : C-class Mage

**Kaede Nagase **

Class : Ninja

Rank : A-class Mage

**Takane Dyanne Goodman**

Class : Shadow Mage

Rank : AA-class Mage

**Evangeline McDowell**

Class : Non Applicable

Rank : SS-class Archmage

**Takahata T. Takamichi**

Class : Death Glasses

Rank : AAA-class Mage

**Konoe Konoemon**

Class : Pervert Dean

Rank : S-class Archmage

**Eishun Konoemon**

Class : Submissive Boss

Rank : AAA-class Archmage

**Albiero Imma**

Class : Horny Bookworm

Rank : B-class Archmage

**Jack Rakan**

Class : Ultimate Broken Character

Rank : You _**S**_tupid or _**S**_omething?-class Archmage

**Naruto Namikaze**

Class : Walking Cheat sheet

Current Rank : B-rank Archmage

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note**

**\(-A-)/**

**Is it me or does all the good mainstream mangas seem like they are ending? Bleach doesn't count by the way. Tite Kubo crapped out after Aizen lost, even that fight was barely passable, what with Ichigo and his father pulling new powers out of their asses. -.- Everything after that seems dumb.**

_***Laughs Loudly* I was looking around for something good to read when I stumbled across a gem of an author note in a harem fic. This was what it said : **_

_My rule was simple: if writing a harem story, end at the harem's formation; NEVER write harem interactions. The reason is, the interactions never turn out right. Naruto stories, Harry Potter... All harems just lose their flavours half-way through once the harem is actually formed, when the author fumbles in the interactions._

_And so, I want you all to keep that in mind when reading this. I tried my best, but harem interactions are nearly impossible to do adequately. If you are a girl reading this, you've been warned: a guy wrote this and as such it will appeal more to male readers compared to female readers._

_**I completely agree with him. In fact, to be honest, I had that same problem the moment Chachamaru was confirmed. Lol. Of course I have my own ideas to circumvent that and there's a few tricks I have left to play in order to prevent exactly what the guy is saying, but I do agree it is hard once the harem or the pairing is formed. **_

_**PPS : Wish me luck, I'm posting this 30 minutes before I have an important meeting with my sponsor. Lol.**_


	24. Finale

**Broken Faith 24**

**Finale**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto and its variants belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Mahou Sensei Negima and its variants belong to Ken Akamatsu. Songs belong to their respective singers and publishers and I'm simply borrowing all of the above. This chapter is released in commemoration of Chapter 355 of Mahou Negima Sensei, the last chapter of a manga series that has lasted for nearly a decade and entertained millions.**

**Godspeed Ken Akamatsu.**

**Naruto's Armour **: i1257 . photobucket . com / albums / ii516 / Kur0Kishi / Dukemon . jpg *Just take that dinosaur thing off the helmet and replace it with a red crown.

**Thanks goes to GxTBilly and Khagerou who first let me know when chapter 355 came out.**

**I seriously suggest you read this while playing the songs.**

**Soundtrack List**

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST - Baf!Baf! Sonna ni Moeru no ga... Suki Kai?

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Ten Wo Tsuke

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Is It Ok Just To Get Fired Up?

AKINO & AIKI bless4 – Gekkou Symphonia

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me From Hell

AKINO – Sousei No Aquarion

******Broken Faith******

**Last time on Broken Faith**

_Takane who had been quiet thus far suddenly spoke, "Will Naruto-sama be included in this operation?"_

_The dean looked at the tall blonde girl in surprise, he hadn't known that the girl and Naruto were acquaintances, "At the moment I haven't seen him yet but Negi assures me he will be fighting on our side. He seems to be doing something that will help us later."_

_With that said, everyone seemed to start having confidence in the wildly crazy plan, Konoemon tried to rally them even further, "Remember this; we have underestimated her for long enough, this plan of Chao-kun must be stopped. Support from the home country probably won't make it here in time either. Keep this in your minds as we fight: If we cannot stop Chao-kun's plan, the world will be changed. Everyone put your full effort into this operation!"_

_All of them stood up with their backs straight and a loud and overwhelming "Yes sir!" reverberated in Konoemon's office._

_The wizened mage smiled at them gratefully._

******Broken Faith******

Asuna fidgeted uncomfortably in her costume and tried to adjust her shoulder armour again as she glared at the chuckling ermine, "Neh... is it really necessary for me to wear this? It's so... outlandish. Won't they target me even more while I'm wearing this?" she mumbled nervously.

Chamo grinned at the girl who was dressed in an elaborate costume consisting of a silver breastplate, an intimidating gauntlet on her left hand along with thick defender's pauldron on her left shoulder and a red swirling skirt with an opening in the front that showed off her slim legs clad in sturdy greaves, "Of course, You didn't forget you were a hero unit did you?"

Asuna flustered, "He-hero units?"

"That's right, didn't you read the manual?" the ermind smirked, "You are **supposed** to stand out. It'll make it that much harder for Chao to target you personally, and at the same time, the hero units are supposed to rally the normal civilians and protect them from too much damage; being dressed like that will make your task that much easier." The ermine explained authoritatively.

Beside her Setsuna flushed deep red in the maid costume that she wore during the Mahora Tournament, complete with cat ears and tail, "Bu-but thi-this is embarrassing..." the swordsgirl muttered.

A thin arm draped itself around her neck and squeezed affectionately, "Awww... you look cute like that Se-chan, don't complain so much."

Setsuna sweat dropped at the flaky princess, "I-If you say so ojou-sama..."

Konoka who was also wearing her Mahora Tournament maid costume smiled gently at her childhood friend, which just made Setsuna blush harder, "Speaking of costumes, has anyone seen Naruto around? He disappeared after bringing Negi to the library, does he know the plan to indirectly use the normal people as combat forces?"

Asakura nodded, "He sent a message by clone saying that Konoemon told him, but he went off to get something to help us further."

"Get what?"

"How the heck should I know?" the ermine retorted.

"What about Negi?"

Chamo scratched his chin with a stubby claw, "Negi's still resting, so we're going to have to beat the robots back until either Negi has rested enough or someone manages to get to Chao and stop the ritual."

"Don't worry about that idiot; I'm more worried about us. We're earlier than expected, Chao will definitely notice something of this magnitude, it's not like we could have hid a mobilizing force so easily. I'm worried about what she might do and how much it will deviate from the knowledge we have of the future. Negi might not even get here in time." The armour clad girl grumbled.

"It's a possibility," Chamo admitted sanguinely, "But we have no choice at the moment. We know she's coming, we had to do something. If we manage to scare her into stopping her plan, then hurrah for us, but I doubt it." He shrugged casually, "If it comes down to it, we'll just have to get through by pure will power."

"Uh huh, and will power can create big robots for us to fight Chao with as well." Asuna shot at the ermine dryly.

A bell rung loudly and the volume of the chattering amongst the crowd gathered at the lake shored increased even further.

Chamo gulped, "Well, I forgot to mention the other possibility but it looks like Chamo sped things up. She's early by an hour."

All of them glanced at their time pieces; 5.15.

The ermine groaned, "Call Negi!"

"No point, electronic communications have been cut off and either Negi's not responding to the Pactio telepathy because he's still resting or it's been cut off as well." Setsuna cut in as she flipped her phone shut and stored it in her skirt.

The group of girls, an ermine and a ghost watched as the battle commenced and bright beams lit the darkening sky as both sides of the conflict started attacking each other.

"Eh... looks like it's just us then."

Asakura nodded, "Looks like I need to go and start doing the announcements, good luck guys."

Three of the girls watched the reporter go before sharing a look and leaping away.

The ermine sweat dropped as he watched the battle. The first of the maid duo; Setsuna went straight to the front lines and started cutting down robots by the dozens while the second...

Konoka... Chamo sweat dropped, calling Konoka the team's heavy artillery on legs was probably the most polite way he could think of to describe her at the moment. Her barrage of huge beams of magic flattened and destroyed even more robots than Setsuna did. She apparently had no hesitation whatsoever when it came to causing mass destruction to robots.

Asuna on the other hand was a perfect example of a tank on legs. Except, instead of shooting stuff, this tank simply swung her sword around like a propeller and bulldozed her way through the army like a weed whacker mowed down grass, occasionally leaping high into the air and slamming into the ground like a comet with her huge sword, destroying anything even remotely near her. What she lacked in terms of speed, she made it for it with pure strength and surprisingly thick skin.

"At this rate, I don't think Negi might even need to show up. Still..." the ermine muttered under his breath before whispering into KuFei's ear, "We need to go get Negi in person since our communications are down."

******With The Combatants******

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Baf!Baf! Sonna ni Moeru no ga... Suki Kai?**

"Hey our defence point is the World Tree Plaza isn't it? So why are we at the lake?" Madoka quietly asked her cheerleader friends.

"Because there were some rumours on the net saying that the enemy will be coming from the lake," Sakurako answered her fellow cheerleader. "We're gonna go BAM BAM and kill them all and get the reward!" The girl excitedly faked shooting her bazooka around.

"But there's still more than an hour before it will start. I'm bored."

A slow rumbling could be heard from the lake.

"Hey what's that?" A shaky voice from a random defender shouted.

"Ooohh!" the cheerleaders heard a few students gasp. Looking towards the lake, Misa's jaw dropped. An army of Tanaka type robots walked out of the water. They were accompanied by spider-like-tanks as big as trucks and more than a few floating spy-cam type machines.

"This is too extreme! Wait this is too early! It's not even start time yet!" Misa shouted indignantly. Before anything else can be said, Tanaka and a few of the other robots opened their mouths and opened fire with beams. A few people in the front got caught in the fire, including Madoka.

"Are they dead?" Sakurako asked as the place that was hit was covered with smoke. When the smoke had lifted, Madoka and the rest of the people who were hit were naked, save for their underwear. Guys were trying and failing to stop their gushing nosebleeds, while girls were screaming and covering themselves. "It's the strip beam, it's real!"

"Stop gawking and get me some clothes!" Madoka shouted at her friends.

"To those who have lost their equipment, please leave the area to get resupplied!" the announcer shouted.

******With The Battle Maids******

Setsuna swung her nodachi and sliced a wide arc of machines in half, having long since given up on using techniques in favour of reserving her Ki to maintain her speed and strength, but her attacks were no less effective. Despite that, the puppets seemed to have some sort of sentience in their programming, rather than waste time shooting strip beams which she dodged anyway, they started bum rushing her in huge numbers. The only reason she hadn't been completely overwhelmed yet was because of her ojou-sama; every so often when the number of puppets started getting too much for the front line to handle, Konoka cast a huge area spell before returning to general healing and crowd control.

"_Audi spirituum Inferni, ad lucem et ignis, et devorabiture penetrare, Hell's Lightning!"_

Like now.

Two bolts of lightning shot forth from Konoka's palms, blowing holes through dozens of machines, just then, the spell's secondary effect kicked in and huge flaming walls of fire sprung up in their wake, momentarily halting the machine's advances, "Ko-Konoka-ojou sama..." Setsuna breathed out in awe.

"Yes Se-chan?" Konoka smiled sweetly at her childhood friend, completely contradicting the background of flames and destruction behind her slight figure.

"I didn't know you could do spells like that!"

The princess shrugged, "I don't like using them on people; they are a little too destructive for me, as you can see, this is usually what happens when I combine two C-rank or lower spells. Unlike Negi-sensei who specializes in combining spells with his body for destructive physical attacks, mine is in combining spells." then she shuddered slightly, "I can combine up to six at the moment, but only twice a day, the mental concentration required to pull it off is enermous. Plus I'm still experimenting on doing the same to spells that are B-rank and higher but it isn't easy." She lightly added.

Setsuna took one look at the walls of fire behind Konoka, remembering the princess doing something like that during the Tournament. No wonder Naruto-sensei passed out in the Tournament, he took 6 combined ones straight to the face; in fact he was rather lucky in that all that he was missing was an arm. She paled and immediately prayed she never pissed Konoka off if she ever learnt how to combine anything higher than A-rank spells.

Suddenly a few huge explosions rocked everyone around, throwing the Setsuna and Konoka to the ground since they were the nearest to one of the explosions; behind them, several of the spider tanks had sacrificed themselves to open up a few paths through the fire, its comrades were already marching forward over the spider tank's remains, advancing on the two maids that were still on the floor. Setsuna gripped her sword and tried to protect Konoka who was still on the floor, trying to heal her sprained ankle.

Growling, the half demon set about making mincemetal of the machines but slowly but surely, they were overwhelming her with large numbers, more and more puppets managed to break through the defence lines and move into the city, fortunately ignoring the downed Konoka.

It was like fighting against the flow of a tidal wave, only this tidal wave was made of an army of Tanaka style robots. As she was forced to slowly give ground, a loud whistling sound made itself known above the din of metal crunching into metal. Setsuna barely had time to look up into the sky. Her eyes widened in surprise and she threw herself over Konoka to shield her best friend just in time for a red blur to drop out of the sky. Using the momentum from its flight path, the blur swung its sword the moment it landed in the middle of the army with an incredibly loud explosion.

The resulting shockwave exploded outwards and toppled everything nearby as the earth around them shook from the impact.

Shakily the swordsgirl helped Konoka stand up as she protested loudly, "Dammit Asuna! Don't do that near people!"

"Ehehehe... Sorry. You looked like you needed help and I got here as fast as possible." A sheepish voice replied from within the dust cloud as an armoured Asuna slowly walked out. Her armour slightly scratched, but all in all, the miniature juggernaut looked completely fine despite her insanely reckless tactics.

"Get here as fast as possible without trying to pretend to be a meteor," Konoka muttered quietly.

"I'm going to kill Naruto-sensei for teaching you something like that." Setsuna grumbled.

Asuna looked miffed, "That idiot didn't teach me anything like that, he just told me to play to my strengths. I learnt this on my own."

"Tch, your super hard head and stupidly strong muscles you mean. God knows why you even have a sword when you swing it around like a damn club like that." the swordsgirl retorted.

"Meanie!" Asuna pouted at her friend while Konoka giggled at their bickering, "I know how to use a sword, but there's too many enemies here to be bothered about finesse. I'll worry about stances and techniques when I'm fighting one on one."

"Asuna! Konoka! Setsuna!"

All three of them whipped around at the sound of their names being frantically called, "Yuuna?" Asuna breathed out in surprise, "What's wrong?"

The girl with a side pigtail braced herself on her knees and panted breathlessly for a few moments, "We need help from the hero units; there was a sneak attack, all over the city robots are popping out from underground bunkers and abandoned houses all over the city. The forces from the lake pincered the first and second central defence points with those in the city. Both of them were immediately overwhelmed." Yuuna said ominously, "There's only four more left and they already started falling when I snuck out for help because we couldn't contact anybody for support."

Konoka immediately flipped out her phone and dialled a number, "She's right, I still can't call anybody." She glanced at the side to see Asuna stowing away her Pactio with the same results, "We haven't been able to reverse the information blackout then." she concluded grimly.

"Wha-what? In the city? But I thought they only came from the lake!" Setsuna exclaimed.

Asuna silently chewed her lower lip in thought and came to same conclusion Naruto did, "No... We were misled."

"Hu-huh? Misled?"

Asuna waved her hand at the still advancing army, "Does this look like 2000 to you? It's at least triple of that. The future thing was a diversion. Chao showed us the forces she was going to use in the future, but those were the forces assuming there was no one to challenge her; simply the expendable forces. Chao knew if we managed to come back, we would only plan for what we saw and won't expect more reinforcements." Asuna looked at Yunna calculatively, "Setsuna, you have to go into the city and help them."

Asuna glanced at the princess apologetically and received an understanding nod in return, "No offence, but Konoka's more suited for wide area bombardment, her fans won't do any damage to the machines plus she won't be able to fight effectively if she's too busy dodging beams so she needs someone to take the heat for her. Same more or less goes for me, my attacks will cause too much collateral damage, fighting in the city will limit both of us a lot, so I'll stay here and stop the puppets from the lake from overwhelming the city. Out of all of us, you are the only one with enough finesse to fight full power in narrow streets and alleys."

Setsuna's first instinct was either to protest or drag Konoka with her anyway but an unbidden memory from the Tournament surfaced in her mind.

'_Do you have so little faith in her Setsuna? Even after how hard she trained so that she can fight beside you?'_

Setsuna sighed resignedly, "When did you get so smart?" Ignoring the red head's protest she growled at her, "I'll do it, but make sure Konoka stays safe or I'll make sure I tell Naruto about that stash of romantic novels under your bed!"

Asuna spluttered and Konoka giggled as Setsuna grabbed Yuuna by the scruff of her costume and leapt away at maximum speed.

Konoka smiled sweetly at Asuna, "Looks like it's just you and me A-chan."

Asuna glanced at her friend weirdly, "A-chan?"?

The princess shrugged, "Setsuna is Se-chan, so Asuna should be A-chan."

Asuna readied her blade as she observed the walls of flame dying down to reveal an amassed army of puppets, "Tch, I can't convince you otherwise can I?"

Konoka shot a blast of pure lightning into the army, "Nope!" she chirped merrily.

"Whatever." Asuna hid a smile and took off with a huge burst of speed that cratered the ground, spinning in mid air she used the momentum to violently swing her sword and cut down the first wave of machines.

All hell broke loose.

******Broken Faith******

**Mahora Information Control Centre **

"Th-this is bad!" Just as someone said that, alarms started clanging all around the centre.

A tall man immediately strode over to a cute female operator, "What's wrong?"

"Seconds ago, somebody started hacking our network. They have already cut off all our communications systems. All our fores are now completely isolated! Whoever it is has already bypassed 3 out 8 of our firewalls and is slowly bringing down Mahora's barrier! It has already fallen enough for Chao-san's reinforcements inside the city to activate! Our forces are slowly being overwhelmed from two directions!"

"No wait, the hacker has already reached the System Core! 1 minute to complete barrier shut down!" Someone else shouted.

The man scratched his head furiously and yelled, "Is there anything you do to slow or stop it!"

"We can't," someone replied helplessly, "The hacker was already in by the time we noticed and every time we try something, the signal evolves into another spectrum that we can't catch on our sensors. It's like a living being is hacking our systems!"

******Broken Faith******

Setsuna grunted as she drove her sword into the ground before slashing upwards, releasing one final huge shockwave that cut down a whole line of puppets.

"Whoa! So cool Setsuna-san! Thanks to you we managed to secure the third checkpoint! The way you fought off an entire army from two directions was soooo cool!"

"Ehehehe..." Setsuna laughed sheepishly before suddenly lunging at Yuuna and pushing her out of the way as a huge spider tank landed where she had been standing moments ago. Wincing at a gash on her elbow, Setsuna tiredly helped Yuuna shakily stand up, "Come on, you have to be more careful."

"Ye-yeah... I'm sorry... Setsuna-san; the robot!" Setsuna turned around too late to stop a huge metal limb from slamming into her, crushing her into the building. The half demon barely managed to shield herself from the majority of the force with her sheath.

"Setsuna!" Yuuna shouted worriedly as she shot her guns at the robot.

"I'm alright!" The swordsgirl grunted in reply as she burst out off the building and slashed the spider tank into half, "What's going on here? These things aren't supposed to attack us physically." She muttered under her breath.

Three more spider tanks somehow fell from the sky and surrounded Yuuna and a tired Setsuna.

******Broken Faith******

**Mahora Information Control Center**

"The systems have failed! The barrier is completely DOWN! I repeat, the barrier is completely down, all of Chao-san's robots are now fully operational!"

"Damn it!"

******Broken Faith******

Asuna cursed as she and Konoka hunkered behind Asuna's huge blade, flashes of light continuously hammered the other side of the blade. She had been right about the robot's learning how to fight, the machine army had separated into two forces, one side continuously fired strip beams at them, leaving no space to dodge while the other continued to overwhelm Asuna, Konoka and the other defenders with pure numbers.

The red head gritted her teeth as Konoka chanted nonstop behind her, _"Spiritues Caelum, adolebit cum Apollinis fiducia, cremabis terra cum ardentis spiritus, Apollo's Touch!"_

Great gusts of fire rained down from the heavens on the advancing army, clearing out nearly half of the puppets attacking them, causing Asuna to breathe a sigh of relief before lifting her sword and dashing into the fray to clear off the remains of the army with one huge blast of Kanka.

"Konoka, you alright?" Asuna asked the panting girl as she limped back to where the princess was resting.

"Ye-yeah... just a bit tired. I haven't tried using so many spells for an extended period of time before." She groaned slightly, "I should have insisted on training my endurance more."

Asuna was just about to fall beside Konoka and rest when a huge rumbling started, everybody there immediately focused on the bubbling surface of the lake.

"Wha-what the hell is that!"

The armour clad girl groaned, "I totally forgot about them..."

Konoka swallowed a lump as she stared at the rising metal hump, "So... everything we've been fighting so far is just the little ones?"

Six huge metal titans, taller even than the nearer buildings slowly stepped out of the water, each step caused the earth to shake. Rising out of the water with them was a new army of spider tanks, Tanaka robots armed with some sort of huge Gatling guns and heavily armed spy-bots

One of the titans swivelled its head around to survey the exhausted defenders before seemingly locking onto the biggest threat. A loud clicking noise emanated from the titan and the other five suddenly turned as well, all of them focusing on Asuna and Konoka. As one all of them suddenly started charging huge orbs of energy out of their gaping jaws.

"Ooh... crap." Asuna immediately hefted her blade to shield herself and Konoka.

**Play** **Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Ten Wo Tsuke**

Six separate beams roared out at Konoka and Asuna.

"Ame no Nuboko."

A flash of blue lightning rammed into the blast head on, the beams held for barely a second before the blue lightning drilled through and exploded towards the first titan and punching a gaping hole clear through the metal monster.

Everyone winced at the sound of metal creaking and gashing as the titan ignored its missing left arm and reached out with its right hand to grab its attacker. A bright flash appeared and its entire right arm was lopped off by Takamichi who appeared out of nowhere.

A huge crash sounded as the titan toppled over backwards, it's left arm, right hand and torso completely missing, throwing up a huge cloud of dust, water and sand.

Asuna blinked at the sudden change in tides as if she couldn't believe it had just happened.

Footsteps crunching on the sand that marched in sync rang out through the dust cloud, "Is... is that our reinforcements?" Konoka asked hesitantly.

"I'm... I'm not sure... but it sounds like there are a lot of people coming."

The dust cloud slowly lifted to reveal a person in resplendent white armour with red and gold highlights complete with a flowing red cape, his right hand was literally holding a bright blue sparking lightning bolt that he used as a makeshift lance while he carried a large shield in his left.

Behind him was a whole army of people wearing yakuza style clothes that marched behind the knight like soldiers.

The knight lifted his sparking blue lance to the sky.

"Let's roll."

His army roared and confidently charged the titans and robots.

******With Setsuna******

Setsuna closed her eyes as she tried to protect Yuuna from a falling metal foot that was about to crush them.

For a moment there was nothing but the inky blackness behind her eye lids.

A loud crunch reverberated in the clearing, prompting Setsuna to open her eyes.

A huge burly and muscled man dressed in a yellow haori grunted as he swung two huge clubs, completely crushing two spider tanks with one blow before punting the third one into the sky with the second club.

"Oi Tatsu! Wait for me!" a voice rang out.

The man in the yellow haori laughed gruffly, "Gomen, gomen Hiro-jii san. I got a little excited, I never get to fight properly anymore... everybody is so soft nowadays..."

An older man with greying hair in a green haori and orange sash, holding what looked two huge katanas ran up to the muscled man before panting tiredly, "Whatever; just don't run off like that again. I'm not getting any younger."

The man called Tatsu laughed again before turning to Setsuna and Yuuna, "You two alright?" he asked gruffly.

The two girls shared a curious glance, "Err... yeah... Who are you two?"

Tatsu grinned, showing teeth that looked like tombstones in his huge jaw, "Us? Naruto's friends. Take care now!"

He ran off again, swinging his clubs wildly at anything that resembled a robot, leaving Hiro to slump down before running after him while grumbling.

******Broken Faith******

**Mahora Information Centre**

"Sir!"

"What now... there can't be more bad news since we're already hacked can there?" the man in charge grunted tiredly.

"N-no, nothing like that. Our systems!"

"What about them?"

"Something is fighting off the hacker. Their coming back online and the barriers are restarting again!"

The man perked up and a smile broke on his face, "Well? What are you doing standing around? Go HELP them!"

"Ye-Yes sir!"

******Broken Faith******

Everyone watched disbelievingly as one of the yakuza's, a huge burly man in a crop cut dressed in blue and orange haori, topping eight feet in height and wielding what looked like a wakizashi... a huge wakizashi that was as long as the titans was tall... and he was somehow swinging it around like a feather as he laughed insanely, cutting down whole swathes of Tanaka style robots with each swing.

The white knight and Takamichi fought back to back as they flashed around the battlefield, his sparking lightning bolt cut down everything that dared to oppose him with impunity before spinning on the spot and violently hurling his shield like a discus at the fallen titan before it could completely regenerate while Takamichi fired off huge meteor like punches that disintegrated whole portions of the army.

The shield wasn't even a tenth of the titan's neck's width but it somehow managed to chop the titan's entire head off.

The knight's red cape flapped in the wind and his white, red and gold armour radiated confidence and superiority as he levelled his lightning bolt at the fallen head and hurled it at the hacked off head. A literal blue beam roared out, disintegrating the head completely.

The explosion threw up another dust cloud, obscuring the knight and Takamichi from view.

Asuna shielded herself and Konoka from the shockwave behind her sword, once the sand storm passed, Asuna peeked over her blade to see the armoured man and her old homeroom teacher emerging from the cloud, talking casually even as another sparking bolt slowly reformed in his hand.

"Your late you know."

"Yeah, yeah, had some problems getting everyone organized and here in time. They were all over the place and they didn't want to come until I said this was a paid vacation sponsored by me." Asuna got the feeling the man in the armour was rolling his eyes.

"Eh... well, there's still one day of the Festival."

"Ta-Takahata-sensei? Na-Naruto? Is that you?"

Both of them turned to look at the girl peeking at them from behind her sword.

"Yo. What are you two still doing here?"

Asuna blinked, "What do you mean 'still doing here?' Wait, where the hell were you? And who the hell are these people? And what in the world are you wearing?" the red head babbled confusedly while Konoka nodded wisely behind her since Asuna already asked everything she wanted to know anyway.

"Ahahaha..." the armoured knight tried to scratch his head but emanated waves of embarrassment when he failed because of his helmet, "I'll tell you later, for now, you two go find Setsuna and join up with Negi. He is already up and heading for the World Tree with KuFei. Chisame and Ayaka are holding things off on the internet."

The girls shared a confused look before hesitatingly nodding and leaping away. The two men watched them go before Naruto pointed his lance at a seemingly empty part of the shore, "Now that they're gone, what do you want?"

Chao faded into view with a cat smile on her face, dressed in some sort of skin tight suit with 5 gun pods floating behind her, "Ah... trust you to notice me even when I'm hiding Naruto-san."

Blue eyes shone curiously from behind the darkened visor, "We've already taken out one of your demon lord robots and the rest will fall soon enough. Shouldn't you be giving up already? They're the most important part of your army isn't it?"

"Hmhmhm... Who said they were? Besides that, do you not realize it?"

A lump formed in Naruto's stomach, "No-notice what?"

The girl waved a hand carelessly at the fallen titan that was already starting to stand back up again, its head and arms were somehow regenerating, "Don't they seem familiar to you? That demonic energy? Just a little present I thought you might like."

This stunned Naruto and he mistakenly looked at the titan in shock, he truly hadn't noticed the demonic energy from them, "Wh-what is this?"

Chao grinned ominously, "Chance..."

"Naruto!" Takamichi suddenly yelled from the side before he shouldered Naruto out of the way, Chao that had suddenly appeared behind Naruto with no sign at all, punched Takamichi instead. Naruto crashed into the ground and as he struggled to get up, he saw a magical array that appeared in mid air before transforming into an expanding black orb that engulfed the teacher, "Takamichi!"

He turned back to Chao, "What's going on Chao? Where is Takamichi?"

"Fufufu, it's too bad... I wanted to get rid of you while you were shaken since you were a bigger threat than Takamichi but I suppose this will have to do, don't worry, he's safe. As for what I'm doing here... I'll leave that to you to figure out. Anyway, I have some other more interesting people to play with, see you later!" the girl faded away again.

Just as she did a barrage of bullets from somewhere started taking out their forces, Naruto grunted and fired off another bright neon blue beam at the sniper that was evaded easily. His neck hair crawled and suddenly a barrage of bullets was shot at him from all directions, he gritted his teeth, there was no way he could dodge everything.

"Oi Naruto!" a large blade swatted him out of the way, denting his armour, Naruto landed roughly on the sand, "Tha-thanks Kichi."

A deep voice growled at him as the huge burly man shielded the two of them from the time bullets with his huge wakizashi, "What's got you so shaken?"

"No-nothing, don't worry about me."

"Hmph, whatever." The man jumped away with his huge blade, leaving the knight to pick himself up from the sand. Just then a loud voice rang out throughout the whole campus.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Is It Ok Just To Get Fired Up?**

"FUHAHAHAHA! Looks like the ladies and gentlemen mages of the Mahora Mage Order is having a tough time repelling my Martian Invaders aren't they ne?" Asakura's jaw dropped.

The reporter swallowed nervously at the huge projection image of Chao Lingshen that was floating in the sky before gathering her wits again, "Lo-Look! That's Chao Lingshen! The Final Boss of this event!"

"Fufufufu, that's right I'm the Final boss and I'm impressed, your swift counter attacks in the first half of the event were truly amazing. Even now, tired and overwhelmed, the mages of the Mahora Mage Order are still putting up a good fight. Now, as the Final Boss, I can't let this continue can I? I have to at least make this a little harder for all you heroes out there fighting against me.

The image projection pulled out a bullet, "That's why I am introducing these to the battlefield. Getting hit by these bullets means an instant disqualification; you can no longer go back and get new robes and weapons. No need to worry, those that are hit will simply be teleported to the losers' room where they will be put to sleep until the end of this event."

Chao's image smiled at the loud clamouring made by the defending forces, "Fufufu, there's no need to complain now is there? If this event was too easy, it would be hard to find a true winner. However, there's still a chance for you, if you can find and defeat me before 8.00p.m., I will concede defeat."

Suddenly the apparition grinned and looked far less intimidating, "Oh by the way, the robot army of this event was co sponsored by Chao Bao Zi, Meat bun of the World, and the Mahora Engineering Department."

Asakura and Chao made eye contact and the reporter grinned nervously at the chinese girl, "And there you have it! The second phase of this event! The Final Boss and co sponsor of this entire event along with the Yukihiro Group has finally made an appearance, now can we find and defeat her? Those that have correct information about her whereabouts will be given extra points as well as reward money!" Asakura enthusiastically yelled into her microphone.

******Broken Faith******

"Naruto-sama!"

The knight swivelled around to look at the person who had called out to him, "Gandolfini? What's wrong?" he lifted his shield to protect the two of them.

"You're needed at the last defence point." The panting mage informed him.

"That's... that's the World Tree is, isn't it? Wh-what about here? The sniper will pick off all of forces if we don't take her down now! She's already got half of the defenders here!"

"No time, you heard Chao's announcement haven't you?" when the armoured knight nodded Gandolfini continued, "We have received intelligence about Chao-san's real whereabouts; 400 metres in the sky directly above the World Tree. But when we tried to reach the World Tree, three new robots suddenly emerged and conquered the last checkpoint, preventing anybody from reaching Chao." The dark skinned teacher swallowed a lump in his throat, "These ones are different from the rest. They are really attacking people and hurting them. We've already pulled out all the civilians and deployed our anti-demon forces, but they are being overwhelmed."

Naruto looked at the four remanining titans hesitantly and the dark skinned mage saw the look, "Don't worry about them, Naruto-sama. Me and the rest of the teachers will hold this place, you have to go help at the World Tree immediately."

Behind his visor, the blonde closed his eyes and breathed deeply, calming his raging thoughts, "Alright. I'll leave this place to you then."

Gandolfini watched the battered knight leap into the air, his ragged red cape flowing behind him, before turning back to the titans, "Alright! Let's show Chao what the teachers of Mahora can do!"

Naruto leaped over the rooftops, urgently increasing his speed as much as he could afford too. The barrier had dropped, meaning his regeneration had increased but the emotional turmoil he was in made him feel like he was carrying weights.

All too soon he dropped down onto the scene of a battle at the base of the World Tree.

Three humanoid robots, special units made obvious by their extraordinary design, were thrashing the mages. From where he was standing he could see Negi, KuFei, Asuna the rest were fighting as well, but they were losing badly.

Of course they would.

Tears started to fall behind his visor and Naruto howled to the sky.

Everyone present stopped fighting as a loud howl rended the air and a man in battered and wrecked white knight's armour dropped onto the battlefield like an enraged God.

He was surrounded in a blazing red aura with hanging ominous black chains wrapped all around his limbs and torso, his red cloak flapped in an nonexistent wind, a truly fearsome image.

A corrupted white knight.

"Get away from here." A deep gruff and malevolent order was issued from the knight.

All the anti-demon mages immediately retreated from the corrupted Paladin.

"Ni-nii-san?" Negi asked shakily, he had never felt such a malevolent aura from Naruto before.

Instead of replying the knight reached out and grabbed Negi by the scruff of his cape, "Wa-wait, wha-what? Nii-san?"

"This isn't your fight. Yours is above." Having said his piece, the Paladin reared back and threw a screaming Negi into the sky with all his demon enhanced strength.

"Naruto! What was that for?" Asuna demanded.

Naruto didn't even bother to look at the girl and simply growled out his earlier order with increased killing intent, "Everyone get away from here, go help Negi. This is my fight."

Reluctantly and shaky from the insane amounts of malicious aura, everyone retreated, leaving the corrupted Knight alone to face the three robots as they watched from afar.

Asuna watched worriedly as she walked away, were those tears?

The knight looked up into the sky, salty tears leaked out from his helmet, he truly hadn't noticed until Chao had mentioned it, but now that he was here, it was all clear.

He howled again.

The titans were all powered by the Demon Lords.

The Nine Demon Lords.

The largest of the three, built to mimic a muscle builder of sorts charged at him, Naruto simply caught the oncoming fist and stood his ground even as the shockwave from the punch obliterated everything around him with magnificent force.

"Hachibi..."

A large cloud of sand shot forth from the smallest machine and tried to slam Naruto away from the first puppet. A rapid burst of water exploded from the knight's mouth, washing away the sand before kicking away the body builder puppet.

"Ichibi..."

The slimmest of the three attacked him with flailing tails.

"Akane..."

******Broken Faith******

"This is it! The Paladin of 3-A, Naruto Namikaze-Springfield versus the three super robots while Nagi Springfield goes ahead of him to fight the Final Boss herself, Chao Lingshen!" Asakura yelled hoarsely from her stage as a huge screen behind her displayed the fighters.

"How will the Springfield Brothers fare! Are they our only hope!"

******Broken Faith******

Negi stepped off his broom onto the platform where the final ritual was supposed to be held.

"Ah... you finally made it here Negi-sensei... I'm proud of you. You have truly proven yourself as one of the strongest."

Negi landed gingerly and calmly stared at the chinese girl, "I didn't get here alone so I do not deserve that title. Everyone, Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna, Kotarou, Takane," he glanced at the wide screens floating in the air all around them, displaying everyone's battles for everybody to seem, in one of the screens Naruto was fighting off the three super robots, "And Naruto. They all helped me get here because they believed that what you are doing is wrong."

"Be that as it may, you alone have reached this place. So what will you do now?"

Negi glared at her, "Naruto-nii san was right. There is no right or wrong here. Whatever happens there will always be bad things and good things; the world isn't going to be perfect even if your plan succeeds. Your way may cause less pain in the long run but there is no guarantee.

He clenched his fist and showed it to her as a display of his resolve, "That is why, even if it might be wrong, with what information I have right now, I will still fight for my belief. Even if I have to fight you, my student Chao-san."

"Ahahahaha! Very well, I expected as much from someone like you. If that is what it comes down too, I'll fight you as well for my own beliefs." Chao disappeared and appeared behind Negi without so much as a burst of magic; there was no warning whatsoever as her fist was posed to hit Negi with two displacement bullets.

And just like her Negi disappeared and reappeared behind Chao with an elbow strike aimed for her neck.

Negi blinked as his elbow missed and ducked a claw strike before blowing Chao away with a powerful reverse kick, the girl bounced away violently before disappearing again and reappeared above Negi with an axe kick. The child teacher managed to lift cross both hands above his head in time to block the kick when Chao suddenly reappeared in front of him and tried to punch his stomach but Negi managed to disappear. Chao immediately spun in place to where she assumed Negi would reappear behind her only for the child teacher to reappear exactly where he was and violently shoot a point blank _Fulguratio Albicans_ at Chao's back.

The girl clad in skin tight grunted as she was shocked but suddenly flashed behind Negi with bullets spread in the air all around the teacher.

Negi's eyes widened in shock as he was simultaneously hit by over a hundred time displacement bullets.

The bun haired girl smiled in satisfaction until she felt something an elbow strike crunch into her back violently.

Chao felt the air leave her lungs in a gasp as she landed roughly on the surface of the blimp, disappeared and reappeared again to attack Negi from behind only to find a wall of stone in front of her before multiple Negis appeared everywhere, one kicked her from behind and her body was bounced all over the place before a final Raika Houken smashed her through the stone wall.

Chao hit the platform violently beside Hakase before doing another time stop and reappearing beside Hakase completely fine despite the heavy hits, "Fufufufu, not bad Negi-sensei. You are truly talented to be able to fight with Cassiopeia to such a level, especially since you've only had it for a day or so. Even I had to practice for years to be able to fight at this level." She smiled at him grimly.

Negi stared at the girl resolutely, "You'll have to thank Mana for that. When I was hit by her bullet, I realized that I had an advantage over her as long as I had the Cassiopeia, she threw me forward 3 hours in time, I simply used the Cassiopeia to come back 3 hours to the past. That way, even if I were to take an unavoidable hit, as long as I can jump to another point in time I can avoid the attack before it hits me. Also, jumping to another time and space at high speeds allows me to enter a pseudo time stop, just like when you used it to place all those bullets around me."

"Bu-but that isn't possible! To do something like that requires an insane amount of concentration and an ability to predict where the blows would come from, especially in active battle." Hakase yelled in a shocked tone.

"Hakase is right. Even the 3rd Cassiopeia on my back is controlled by an highly advanced AI that predicts and turns back time when I cannot." Chao admitted.

Negi lifted his Cassiopeia and gestured at the two small half transparent fairies on the device, "The secret are these little spirits; a spirit for basic movement to activate the Cassiopeia whenever the spirit of prophecy manages to predict an incoming attack."

"Fufufufu, truly, you are not called the son of the Thousand Mage for nothing." Chao smiled in satisfaction.

"Now that you know you cannot beat me in a fight as long as the both of us have the Cassiopiea, surrender in peace, you no longer have a reason to continue this ritual Chao-san!"

"Oh? Why are you getting so pushy Negi-sensei? That's not like you to ask for something before seeing it through to the end. You said you would fight me to prove your belief after all..." Chao smiled coyly, "Or are you hiding something?"

She suddenly reappeared behind Negi with one arm wrapped around the hand that was holding up the Cassiopeia, "Hoh? She looked at the cracked and sparking device, "No wonder, this is bad for you isn't it Negi?"

The teacher immediately pulled out of her grip and tried to throw her over his shoulder in a judo throw but it failed as Chao disappeared before she hit the ground and disappeared behind him with two fists ready to hit Negi.

The teacher simply spun around and calmly let her hit the Cassiopeia.

******Broken Faith******

A flaming broadsword sliced through a sand cloud before a rampaging armour clad figure burst through, the sand melted into glass on contact with the burning aura, the figure charged at the body builder recklessly with insane speed and swung his blade, shearing off the body builder's metal left arm with a mad roar, the blade hit the ground violently, shaking the earth enough to destabilize the body builder. The knight flipped in mid air and kicked the machine away violently.

The two other super robots immediately retreated and stood guard in front of the third robot to give the body builder time to regenerate, allowing everyone could see a screen to watch as the fearsome hunched over knight stalked out of the mist towards the three super robots, steam rose from his mask as tears fizzled and dried immediately.

His chains clinked loudly as the knight disappeared with a huge burst of speed and reappeared behind the smallest machine with his burning claymore ready to cut it in half, unfortunately it was deflected by three flailing tails while the other six tried to pierce the knight. The screech of metal gashing into metal had everyone wincing as the points of the six tails were deflected by the armour or the chains; one burning hand grasped the nearest tail before the slimmest one was aggressively flung into a building.

The still one armed body builder took the chance to body slam the knight in wrecked armour, only for the madly flailing broadsword to cut completely it in half at the waist, cauterizing the open wound so that it couldn't reform, or at least not that fast. The knight screamed to the sky as steam poured out from his visor in an unending stream, not one of victory but one of sadness, over the body of the puppet.

A malicious and angry red aura swirled in the air as the knight advanced on the remaining super robot.

Clouds of sand and stone attacked him in an unending barrage which the blonde completely ignored, wading through melting sand, tearing through the sand defences like so much wet paper, slowly and maliciously cornering the last robot until it was backed against a solid wall. One gauntleted hand with claws inexorably reached out and grasped the robot's face before slowly crushing it in his burning grip. A loud howl of anguish issued from the knight's lips as he completely crushed the puppet's head.

Slowly, implacably and inevitably, the knight turned towards the last super robot.

And charged forth with its broadsword once again raised, crying red eyes, burning with anger, sadness, despair and madness shone from behind the visor as the slimmest robot made no move to defend itself and simply stood waiting for its end.

The broadsword swung downwards like an executioner's blade.

And still it made no move, the tails already frozen and seemed to be waiting for its inevitable death.

The keen edge of the blade stopped mid swing, barely centimetres from the robot's faceless head; the heat from the aura was already turning the robot's face red.

Naruto dropped the blade from his lifeless fingers and collapsed to his knees and started sobbing, "I... I can't... Akane... I can't..."

A wet thudding sound rang out in the clearing, everyone watched in horror as the previously nine unmoving tails suddenly tore through his armour and chains; stabbing through the knight all over his body.

Blood slowly dripped from the holes in the armour and the red aura slowly faded away into nothing as the tails easily lifted the limp body.

"NARUTO!"

A girl's voice screamed loudly, full of anguish.

******Broken Faith******

Shocked the Chinese girl jumped away after breaking the device, "Wha-what was that? Why did you let me hit your Cassiopeia, was all that talk about your resolve just a bluff?

The child teacher simply brushed his hand to clear it from the clock's debris on his robes, "I wanted to show you, that even with all your advanced technology, you won't win. This fight is about our beliefs. If I win it because I am using your technology then there is no meaning in us doing this."

"Damn right Negi! You show her!"

"As-Asuna-san?" Negi looked around for the red headed girl in shock, above him, displayed on a floating screen was Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka, Kotarou and Misora as they fought against Chao's flying puppets.

Negi wiped away his tears and smiled brightly at the screen before turning serious again and looked at the dumbfounded Chinese girl.

"Besides, your Cassiopeia has two fatal flaws."

The girl seemed to gather her wits together and jut her chin out at him defiantly, "Oh yeah?" she appeared and reappeared behind him, ready to kick him as hard as possible when rock spires burst out from all around Negi, one spire slashed her side badly before another knocked her back down onto the blimp, she disappeared shortly before hitting the blimp and reappearing again, the tear in her suit was still there.

Negi pointed at the tear, "Your first weakness, as long as you are hit, the damage cannot be undone unless you heal yourself before going back into the battle. You are going back in time true, but your body is still the same, the only thing that changes is the time line. That way, the damage will accumulate until you surrender or die."

Negi flashed above Chao with huge spurt of speed, his foot raised in an axe kick aimed at Chao's forehead but she disappeared, instantly Negi flooded the whole area with a huge lightning spell that shot random strikes of electricity all over the platform.

Chao reappeared in time to get shocked badly and Negi hammered her with his fists until she disappeared again.

When a panting Chao reappeared at a safe spot the teacher lifted another finger with a serious look on his face, "Your second and biggest flaw, this is something Saotome-san clued me into. The Cassiopeia works by taking you back in time. You then heal yourself, pick a proper spot, say behind me, before coming back to the future, perhaps a split second from your original point in time to make it seem like instantaneous teleportation. The Cassiopeia cannot move you through space, only time. But you won't know if something is already there, your prediction AI cannot work on what it cannot see. I flooded the place with lightning after you disappeared, so even when I didn't know where you would appear, as long as I am fast enough, a wide area spell will guarantee an absolute hit."

Chao chuckled tiredly as the Cassiopeia sparked and exploded; her insides had been shocked badly when she returned back into the future with electricity inside her. Both her tight suit and the time device were actually insulated against electricity, knowing Negi's propensity of lightning spells, but she had materialized with the lightning side her body and the time device, "I see... so I suppose using the Cassiopeia against you is pretty stupid."

Chao smiled grimly.

Seals started form on her skin, _"Code : _9784063637328 1929979004002, spell circuit pattern open, seal released," Chao mumbled under her breath.

"Wha-what is that?"

Chao placed her palm on the glowing spell array that had formed underneath her and grinned at Negi_, "Last Tale My Magic Scir Magister, Hear me O Tyrant of Flames, Heed the Contract and Obey my Command, Come Forth, Flames of Purification and Fiery Broadsword, Fire and Brimstone Surge forth, Burn down Sodom, Turning Sinners into the Dust of Death, Blazing Heat In the Sky!"_

******Broken Faith******

**Play AKINO & AIKI bless4 – Gekkou Symphonia**

It hurt.

Gentle breeze blew locks of his around his face and some hair tickled his nose, causing him to sneeze before wincing as the action wracked his entire body in pain.

Slowly, he tiredly opened one blue eye to find himself looking up into a clear blue sky without any clouds. The only indication it wasn't normal was a missing sun despite the bright light.

Grunting, he shakily sat up and braced himself with one elbow to look around at his surroundings.

He seemed to be in some sort of weird clearing surrounded by leafy trees.

As if in a trance, he brushed his blonde locks out of his eyes and shakily walked in a random direction, something seemed to be pulling him there.

Placing his hand on a tree, he gently revelled in the feeling of nature as he hobbled along the unbroken path towards whatever was attracting him.

He knew not how much time passed, the pain never went away but it never increased either, it was just there as the blonde slowly followed wherever divine providence seemed to be leading him. It didn't take long for him to notice a light at the end of the road.

Naruto snorted, how ironic. A light at the end of the tunnel.

Was this his death?

He couldn't turn back no matter **what** he did, his tired legs continued despite his brain's urging. Before long he reached the light and walked through.

Into an open field, flowers were scattered everywhere as a gentle breeze blew a nostalgic scent to his nose. It was empty save for a solitary figure that seemed to be tending to the flowers in the middle of the field. Not knowing what else to do, he headed towards the figure.

As he neared the figure, it stood up as if waiting for him but never turned back to face him.

But he didn't need it to, he could recognize that back anywhere even if it had been 5000 years since he had last seen it, a straight back, clad in a pale pink kimono with a soft cream white sash.

Vibrant wavy red hair fell down her back like a river of flames.

His hobbled walking got faster until he finally reached her and threw his arms around her waist, burying his face in her hair.

Tears fell unheeded.

A soft hand patted the arms around her waist soothingly.

"Akane..."

"Naruto..."

Naruto cried harder.

Hours might have passed as he cried on her shoulder but he took no notice. The lady gently led the sobbing man to a couch that had materialized out of nowhere and sat down on his lap, she leaned into his embrace, "I missed you."

Naruto just blubbered into her shoulder and held her tighter, causing her to laugh; a clear tinkling sound that he hadn't heard in years.

"Look, you've dirtied my kimono with all your tears, what happened to the Great Naruto, you've never cried before." The lady chided him gently in an amused tone.

Naruto sniffed and smiled a watery smile that she probably couldn't see, "Ho-how are you here? And am I dead?"

The figure stiffened, "Is that what you want? Have you fallen so far?"

Naruto buried his face in her kimono again, "What am I supposed to do then? What can a broken person like me do? Everything I knew, the people I grew up with, the people I knew, the culture, my purpose; all gone."

"What did I give you my power for? Have you achieved what you wanted to achieve with it?" She said as she lifted her hand to caress his cheek with the back of her hand.

The blonde snorted and pulled away, his tone coloured deeply in self hate, and leaned back into the couch with his eyes closed, "And what good did it do? Your last gift, your essence, your core, and I couldn't use it. Every time I used it I simply brought myself one step closer to death, looking at those flames just reminded me of my weakness."

He looked at the woman's back and choked out lowly, "I was afraid of it, afraid that you hated me in your last moments; Deep inside I was afraid that was why whenever I used it, it was killing me. That you wanted me to atone for abusing that power with my death. I wasted your gift, I even used to it to become a monster! How could you not be angry at me? I deserve your hate!"

The woman in his lap snapped her fingers and Naruto was suddenly engulfed by red fire and chains. His eyes closed he waited for the pain to hit, but when none did he slowly opened his eyes. The red haired woman in his lap ran her soft fingers on the black chain links on his flaming hand, "Do you truly believe that?"

"Yes!"

"Naruto..." she said reproachfully, "I thought we promised not to lie to each other?"

"... No..." The blonde admitted shamefully, "... I-it just felt better to think that you were blaming me rather than me blaming myself..."

"And that's the reason why...I passed on this gift to you willingly; a gift from a wife to her husband. Something like that would never have hurt you... The reason that it is slowly killing you isn't because of me. It's because deep down inside you, you hate yourself so much that the youki instinctively follows your emotions. All this time, it wasn't killing you. You were killing yourself."

"Do you forgive me?" he whispered.

"I've always forgiven you, no matter what you did."

**The sounds of chains starting to break could be heard.**

"I caused your death!"

"And I followed willingly." She calmly replied with her back to him.

Naruto looked down, having no more arguments, desperately wanting to keep wallowing in his own bitter anger.

**Chains started falling off.**

She shifted around on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest, "I've forgiven you Naruto... it is time for you to forgive yourself... Return to the Naruto I once loved."

Naruto started crying again, his tears dropped onto her vibrant red hair as he sobbed harder and harder on her, "I-I'll try..."

Everything started fading into a pure whiteness; the two of them seemed to be floating in mid air.

**The chains that had been slowly breaking ever since his unsealing from the World Tree finished as that last link that was holding everything together shattered and the black chains that were once wrapped around him started falling off bit by bit.**

"Will I see you again?"

"I don't know...Maybe."

Naruto sniffed wetly and wiped his tears away, "I'll be alright now Akane. I promise."

The woman snorted and let him go as she bent down to pick up the chains, "Are you sure? These chains represent your anger and hate. They've given you strength to do what was necessary for so long. If you chose to do this, you will be weaker than when you came here."

Naruto shook his head, "Then I'll live with it. I don't want that kind of strength anymore. I just want live knowing that I have your love even in your last moments."

"I will always love you, even if you do something frustratingly stupid which is frankly enough very frequent." Her shoulders shook in barely concealed amusement.

He smiled ruefully at her jab and held her warm slight frame to his own lean one, "I love you too..."

The two of them floated there silently, revelling in the embrace, "Ca-can I see your face one last time?"

Ruby eyes turned to look at him, her full pink lips quirked in a smirk that brought a glow to her flushed cheeks as she lifted one hand to caress his whiskers lovingly.

The blonde smiled as he lovingly carressed those familliar high cheekbones.

He slowly leaned down to kiss her.

She kissed back just as vigorously as she started fading away as well.

Naruto kept kissing her until he was left holding nothing but air and few glittering sparkles.

He wailed loudly.

A tinkling laugh reverberated in the air and a soft whisper caressed his ears, "_Forgive yourself. Don't forget me but don't let it hold you back from loving again either. There are a lot of people who will love you as much as I did."_

"But I will never love them as much as I did you." He promised vigorously as his vision slowly whited over.

"_You will learn. Give it time." _Said the amused voice.

A bright light engulfed him as everything turned to white.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me From Hell**

Clear blue eyes opened again, the sounds of tinny screaming reach his ears through his damaged helmet as he tiredly tried to move a gauntletled finger.

He seemed to be lying down on the ground, and there was something in his left hand.

He slowly brought it up to his visor, it was a Pactio card. The picture on the card was one of a red headed woman in a kimono sun bathing beneath the World Tree, there was no description whatsoever on the card, no latin numeral, nothing.

Chuckling slightly he braced himself and slowly stood up, using the Totsuka no Tsurugi as a crutch; "Even if you are gone you still have to watch over me huh?"

He looked around, from his vantage point at the top of the hill, the World Tree behind him, he could see the three robots were ignoring him in favour of attacking the anti demon mages still around.

"Very well... watch over me Akane." As soon as he said that the card in his left hand and the claymore in his right hand started vibrating and heating up, "Huh? What's going on?"

The two items were drawn to each other as if magnetized, the moment they made contact a deep gold light emanated from them and they melded together.

The screaming stop as the three healed super robots turned their attention to the bright light.

As the bright light subsided, Naruto was left holding a large sword, it was even larger and broader than the original Totsuka no Tsurugi and seemed to be made out of a weird shiny metal. A red tassel with a fox motive hung from the hilt.

He looked up into the sky; the clouds were slowly clearing above him.

He laughed and tears fell down his face.

He roared at the sky and a tower of pure power erupted from the blonde; everyone around stopped fighting to watch in shock as someone who was dead came back to life.

A straight backed and proud figure walked out of the towering blue flames, the corrupted knight was gone, his wrecked armour completely repaired to its original pristine state with one large sword hefted on his shoulder as his red cape once again flapped proudly in the wind.

His steps sure and confident.

The three super robots charged at him.

He exploded into flames again, but this time there were no chains, no malicious aura, just a solid presence, pure unrivalled power. The knight levelled his sword at the three incoming puppets, "Sorry but I'm not dying yet."

Pure speed.

Reappearing behind the smallest puppet it was skewered on the silver sword before a clicking sound emanated from the sword and it forcefully split apart into 6 pieces, which cut the puppet into six pieces. The blonde caught one of the larger blades in his off hand to deflect a massively powerful desperate blow from a huge cloud of sand before spinning from the force of the deflection, catching another sword mid spin and consecutively slashing the 6 pieces of the smallest puppet into even smaller pieces, "You always were the slowest bastard, Ichibi."

As he watched the pieces of the puppet slowly fall to Earth, he realized he didn't have time to rest as he ducked under a huge fist. Naruto grabbed the arm and used it like a monkey bar to swing up and kick the remaining four blades, stabbing them through the puppet that resembled a body builder. While it was still struggling a clone of the knight formed on the opposite side of the field.

"This one is for you Hachibi, Killer Bee." He spoke lowly.

"_North and South Double Burning Lariat!"_

The two knights smoothly clothes lined the puppet with enough force to cut it in half.

"_Mugen no Bunkatsu."_

All the separate pieces of the two puppets barely even had the chance to land on the ground before there was a bright flash, and then nothing, the pieces of the two puppets had been cut into bite sized pieces and hung in the air, falling to the Earth in slow motion.

His sword lit with blue flames again and the knight swung it down smoothly, _"First Heaven!"_

A tidal wave of blue flame devoured the bits.

When the flames finally died down, both of the puppets lay in burning pieces so small; it was hard to tell there were originally two of them. The third one, the slimmest one was stabbed to the World Tree's trunk, four blades pinning its nine flailing tails to the trunk while the fifth and largest one was stabbed through its torso, effectively shutting down all resistance.

Soon it stopped struggling even as the knight seemed to be crying over it. One mechanical limb lifted up to touch the tears falling from his visor away before falling limp.

The crying knight stood up before lowering his head as if in prayer, bright blue flames spread from his sword to cremate the inactive machine.

The 6 swords disappeared with a flash, leaving behind a card floating in front of the knight.

He gently grabbed it and glanced at it, the picture had changed into a red haired woman sitting under the Tree, cradling the large silver sword like a baby.

The number zero was on the top right of the pactio.

_**Namicaze Naruto, **_

_**Qui Caelum Terebrare, **_

_**Virtue : Remissio, **_

_**Directio : Centrum,**_

At the bottom left of the card were the words _**Astralitas : Caelum Sideralis.**_

Carefully he stored it away before looking up into the sky where another battle was taking place.

The blue flames around him flickered before forming into six huge wings that flapped once experimentally, and he took off with a one huge leap.

******Broken Faith******

**Play AKINO – Sousei No Aquarion**

Negi hurtled out of the clouds, his barriers had barely held against the High Ancient Fire spell. Even then he was still injured; his left arm was burnt badly. Struggling, he managed to get his staff to start floating again as he slowly went back up to where Chao was waiting for him, panting and burnt as well.

"Was that magic?"

"Heh, is it so surprising? I keep saying I'm your descendant, it is only natural that I can use magic isn't it?"

Negi glared at her, "And you expect me to believe that when you can barely move after casting one spell? Whatever you are doing is hurting you as well!"

"Oh well..." She pointed her palms at him, "I don't care if I die, as long as what I want is realized."

Her homeroom teacher stared at her resolutely, "This is no longer about my beliefs. If you are willing to sacrifice your own life to achieve something like that, then as your teacher, I will have to beat you down before you can do something stupid like that."

Chao clenched her jaw, "Stop saying things like that when you don't have the power to back it up. _Flagrantia Rubicans!"_

"_Fulguratio Albicans!"_

Negi sped down under the explosion, using it as cover to get nearer to Chao, _"Sattica Magica Seri-"_

Negi charged his staff magic before hurling it at her like a javelin, "Stop using Magic damn it!"

"Then stop me!"

"I plan to!"

The small teacher suddenly split into several identical clones that ran at her, zig zagging each other in a confusing pattern, "Wha-what? Grrr! _Sattica Magica Series Ign_- Gak!" she was stopped again as the javelin Negi had thrown at her suddenly boomeranged into her back, knocking her down onto the platform.

The child teacher kept up harassing his student, disrupting her spells as he and his clones slowly inched closer and closer with determined expressions on their faces, "Grrr! Stop cheating and let me cast a spell!"

"Thats what I said too! Right before Naruto-nii san put his foot through my arse!"

Shortly before they reached her an inky darkness suddenly spread all over, blocking off all light.

Something tripped her up before kicking her into the air.

As she started to slowly fall down, voice whispered in her ear, "Tell me something Chao-san, this two years, the years you spent here, you say you spent all of it preparing for this day. But answer me truthfully, did those days mean anything to you? Those days spent with Hakase, Chachamaru, Evangeline, with everybody in 3-A.

Chao smiled sadly even though she couldn't see anything.

"Yeah... it felt like a fleeting dream... but yeah it did. It was really fun..."

"Thank you," she felt two palms placed on the front and back of her torso, "_Dios Tucos: OVERLOAD!"_

A short but insanely bright flash lit up her up as the darkness exploded and pain flooded through her body before everything went dark once more.

For a moment there was nothing but a large black smoke cloud when two charred and smoking objects free fell out of the dust cloud.

As the two of them fell to Earth smoking and burnt, Chao managed to rasp and chuckle at Negi, "Wh-what in the God's name possessed *cough* you to use not one, but two, Dios Tucos at point blank range? The attack would have hit all three of us since everyone was in contact!"

Negi coughed badly before mumbled lowly causing Chao to strain her hearing even as wind whistled pass the both of them, "Bu-but...Nii-san looked so cool when he did something like that..."

Negi managed to blush even as both of them fell to their doom as Chao started laughing loudly at his admission, "Common sense doesnt exactly apply to that idiot!" she laughed harder before groaning as pain wracked her body again.

Suddenly his descent was halted as someone caught onto his cloak and a glowing gauntlet caught Chao's limp arm, stopping both their free falls so suddenly that Negi was left a little dazed, "Yare yare, I can't even leave the two of you alone for a few minutes can I?"

"Ni-nii-san?"

"Na-naruto?"

"Hmm?"

Negi looked at his glowing brother in shock, "Are you alright?" he asked hesitantly, he hadn't forgotten the malice that seemed to be pouring out of Naruto earlier.

The glowing knight flapped his wings again with his head tilted in thought, "I suppose I am. It hasn't really hit me yet, it will so I want to get this over and done with so I can go home and cry for a week while I munch on doughnuts and ice cream." He replied drily.

Negi snorted in amusement while Chao chuckled weakly, his brother was back.

"So? Who won?"

Chao grinned and opened her mouth to speak but Negi pouted at her with teary eyes. Rolling her own eyes, Chao relented with a mischevious smile, "It was a draw."

Just then the airship lighted up brightly, and a huge magical array formed in the sky above the air ship, "The seal! Chao-san the ritual didn't fail?"

Said Chinese girl looked down to see 6 glowing points around the World Tree forming a massive hexagon, she chuckled weakly, "Looks like I win after all, the forced recognition spell was activated."

"Wh-what? How why?" the panicking teacher demanded.

"You defeated me, but the one casting the ritual was Hakase, as long as she wasn't disturbed and at least five of the six points were conquered, there would be enough power for the spell to activate."

She looked up at the magical array, "Once that happens, that array will draw out more power from the World Tree and send out a pulse that will resonate with the other 12 Holy Points."

Suddenly an even larger array shone all around Mahora, the girl stared in disbelief at the new array, "Wha-what is that?" Chao managed to stutter out.

"What? You really didn't think I wouldn't have a backup plan do you?" the winged knight spoke in an amused tone.

"What? How? When?"

"The array automatically blocks any sort of energy from going out of the prescribed radius," Naruto nodded sheepishly, "It was a bit of a gamble since the array hasn't been tested yet, the seal was actually meant to keep the energy remaining inside my body instead of being absorbed by the World Tree. As for when, while I was missing I had hundreds of clones going around drawing that thing this evening before the event. When you guys started one hour early, I had to spam a thousand clones to get things done in time. Even then I was still hella late." He noted wryly.

Negi cocked his head in confusion, "Outside? What about those people that are **inside**?"

"Ah... I didn't have time to think about that... sorry."

"Nii-san!"

"What? I was busy! I can't think about everything!"

"Still! Everyone inside will know about magic! How will we keep it a secret for long?"

"So! Now you don't have to hide everything from say... Ayaka right!"

"That is NOT the point!"

Chao chuckled at the two brother's bickering before fainting

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note**

_**Audi spirituum Inferni, ad lucem et ignis, et devorabiture penetrare**_ – Hear me O Spirits of Hell, come forth with fire and lightning, pierce and devour.

_**Spiritus Caelum, adolebit cum Apollinis fiducia, cremabis terra cum ardentis spiritus**__ – _Spirits of the Sky, burn with Apollo's confidence, scorch the Earth with your blazing breath.

_**Mugen no Bunkatsu**__ – Infinite Divider_

_**Qui Caelum Terebrare**__ – He who pierces the Heavens._

_**Remissio **__– Forgiveness._

_**Centrum**__ – Centre._

_**Caelum Sideralis**__ – Starry Skies_

_******Broken Faith******_

**(I was a little reluctant to release this so early, because like chapter 23 which came out so soon after 22, barely anybody bothered to review it. Of course that might be because the chapter was mostly filler, but still, 19 reviews out of 700 alerts was rather pitiful. Makes a writer feel rather unappreciated yea know. But still... I promised... and this is a good way to celebrate the manga going out with a bang, so read away!)**

That being said... HOLY SHIT THE GIRLS ALL LOOK FKING HOT! Ako, Nodoka, Makie are among the most noticeable.

the Narutaki twins... F...yeah... I'd tap that.

Lol at them and Kotarou/Natsumi getting hitched first though. The one most against love and the most childish ones were the first to get married. Setsuna and Konoka presumably married each other, so that probably doesn't count.

**Yeah the ending was rather ambiguous and there's a few plotholes, but it's a general blanket type happy ending. This is probably as good as it gets for Japanese mangas. For some reason they really like to leave their things hanging and open ended, you will very rarely find one with a definite end, unless it's a bad end, then they describe every gory detail with great relish. It's a japanese thing, don't ask. Although part of it might be because of capitalism, if they leave it open ended like that, the questions, the fascination and the popularity of their manga/anime continue long after it even ends, sort of like Neon Genesis Evangelion (I only watched half of the original series before I was traumatised enough to feel the urgent need to slit Shinji's throat, baring that, slit my own wrists just because if I stopped there, the memories of so much psychopathy would always stay with me no matter what I do and the sick curiosity about what happened will always remain despite needing to suffer through huge amounts of angst to satisfy that cruiosity. Does anyone feel like that?), it also opens up the chance for a possible sequel don't you think? Plus if he DID pick someone, 30 out of 31 people are going to be pissed ya know. So yeah, leaving it hanging is probably better, even if people question him, it's better than people hating him. Lol.**


	25. A New Balance

**Broken Faith 25**

**A New Balance**

**Disclaimer : I Don't own anything; Negima, Naruto or any songs I might use in the making of this piece of fiction.**

**Soundtrack List**

Angel Beats! OST – Ichiban no Takaramono

Persona 3 OST – Kimi no Kioku

******Broken Faith******

"You're not going to join your class?"

"They're your class too." The shinobi dryly remarked from his spot under the tree at the edge the field where several mighty oblong pillars stood as he painstakingly peeled off the heavy armour. "Damn, I regret wearing something like this." He grumbled under his breath while the person standing next to him smirked.

"So?"

"So what?"

"You're not upset with me?"

"Should I be?" Naruto observed the vampire neutrally, "You obviously had your own reasons for helping Chao."

Evangeline shrugged, causing Naruto to raise one eyebrow, "Like you said, it was a good chance to test Negi. Training can only bring him so far. He often talks about conviction and justice but I wanted to see if his _justice_ could hold up in a live combat situation like this. Whether he would lose his values like so many others."

"I distinctly remember having marginally more faith in him then you are at the moment."

"Meh."

Naruto laughed and grabbed her bottle of sake, much to her protests and threw the entire thing into his throat as the vampire sat down under the tree beside him. The two of them then watched Negi try to persuade Chao to stay on top of the tallest obelisk. "Aren't you supposed to go join them and convince her to stay?" Evangeline asked the man beside her curiously.

The blonde smiled slightly, "Eh... Maybe once I get this thing off." He replied, gesturing at the white breastplate, "It's rather embarrassing to be wearing something like this. Besides, this is something special to 3-A, I don't feel like a newcomer like me should interfere."

Loud laughter from the field behind them where those who were hit by the disqualification bullets were sent, reached their ears. Naruto smiled, knowing that his toad friends were enjoying the party with everyone else who participated in the battle. Most likely with a lot of sake.

She hummed quietly in reply before asking her next question, "By the way, what in the world made you wear something so..." the little vampire struggled for an appropriate word as she gestured at it, "Ostentatious, flashy, stupid?" she finished rather lamely.

The grimace on the blonde's face got more and more pronounced as the little vampire pronounced each word, the adjectives stabbing and deeply wounding his manly pride.

Grumbling slightly as he recovered from the attack, Naruto answered with a light blush, "Ah... Ayaka managed to grab me just before I could join the battle. Then before I could do anything she forced this thing into my hands. When I asked why, she mumbled something about _matching with her costume_ and _every princess should have a white knight_."

He scratched his chin in thought, "It's probably a modern thing, or maybe it's something from her culture. Bottom line, I had no frigging clue what a white knight was, or what it had to do with princesses. Anyway, I really didn't want to put that thing on but in the end she just pouted at me and I... uh... gave up?" The blonde muttered with a sheepish smile.

"Oh..." Evangeline face palmed, regretting her question.

The last piece of armour finally dropped and the blonde tiredly got up, "Eh, time to go, see you at home?"

"Yeah, sure." She replied offhandedly as she watched the shinobi walk off, wondering if he noticed that he had begun to refer to her little cabin as home.

******Broken Faith******

"Nah, I'm going back to the future." Chao grinned as everyone around her face faulted.

When Negi recovered he asked, "Why Chao-san?"

Chao turned back to the innocent boy and felt like teasing him just a bit more, "Ehehe, ignore that part for the moment. I have a question for you that is even more important. Are you sure it's alright to say something that sounds so much like a confession of love to me? Especially with all your fans listening?" Chao asked with a mock pout at a reddening Negi.

"Eh!" everyone gasped at the same time at the new bit of information.

"In the magical world, to aim to be magister magi together would be like asking the person to marry then for life. Don't you think it's a bad idea to propose to someone who's blood related to you like me, Negi-bouzu?" As she said this she was affectionately caressed the red head's cheek, causing him to blush even brighter.

Asuna reminded herself to step on a certain ermine a few times for accidentally leaving out crucial information like that.

"Wait just a moment here Chao!" the red head yelled loudly, "Is that true?"

"We're standing here listening and being nice compassionate people by letting you talk peacefully to Negi-sensei and you take advantage of our kindness like that and flirt with him?" Haruna hollered indignantly.

Asuna slapped her forehead, "That's not the damn problem here Paru!"

"Ahahaha don't get mad, it was just a joke-ne," Chao grinned and waved at them apologetically.

Grumbling, the girls settled down, Konoka looking vaguely disappointed that the discussion didn't continue for some reason.

Meanwhile Negi was busy spluttering, "Bu-but I-I didn't mean it that way Chao-san!"

The self proclaimed Martian bonked him on the head with a light chuckle, "Ehhh? That makes it even worse Negi-jiji." She pouted at him, "Making such an insincere proposition, you'll never get a girlfriend like that you know, you really broke my heart." she sniffed a few times and even wiped away some crocodile tears for bonus points.

"I-I...guh... um sorry?"

her mood immediately changed and she flipped around to squeeze her homeroom teacher, "Heheh, so cute, you were always so serious in the future." She looked up at the sky to see something only she could see, "It's almost time for me to go now. I'm sorry Negi."

Negi steeled his resolve, "I don't want you to go Chao. No, I can't let you go Chao, I want you to stay here with us, with everyone precious to you. Stay with us here where you are HAPPY!"

Chao faltered for a moment but as soon she looked deeply into his eyes she clenched her jaw again.

"Fufufu," Chao laughed maliciously and her face took on a serious expression "Then you leave me no choice but to use my trump card. The final and most powerful weapon that Chao Lingshen can use-ne?"

Everyone prepared for battle as her aura suddenly skyrocketed.

The Chinese girl grinned as she smoothly pulled out something from behind her, "Hiyah!"

Everyone froze and stared at her weapon... a book?

"Th-this is...?" Negi stuttered out in shock and confusion.

"Fwahahaha!" she laughed evilly as she flourished the book in her hands, "Taste the bitterness of defeat! This is the book containing records of the Chao Family Tree!"

"Eh?"

Chao sweat dropped, she noticed that all the girls with the dropped jaws had already realized it but the boy in front of her was... eh... a little too naive, "Since I'm your descendant it would only mean that you married someone and had children doesn't it?"

Negi nodded in confusion, "So?"

"So this book has the name of that certain person of course!"

"Oh..."

Comprehension dawned like the sun on a winter morning.

"AH!" he lunged for the book only for a giggling Chao to side step him and duck under Ayaka who came in flying from nowhere before a ribbon whip suddenly wrapped around the book and jerked it out of her hand.

"Bwahaha! I got it!" the small pink haired girl laughed maniacally as she slowly opened the book with trembling hands and the kind of heavy breathing that is usually associated with perverts.

But before she could see anything, Chao spoke again with an amused tone, "Oh I should mention, since Naruto-jiji and Negi-jiji are so close, it is only natural that both families are somewhat connected with each other." She winked in the direction of a tree at the edge of a field, "Naturally that means the person that Naruto-jiji marries is in there as well." She finished mischievously.

Makie... wasn't really listening anymore.

As soon as those words had spilled out of Chao's lips, the cold metal of a gun barrel was pressed to the back of her head.

"**Book. Now."**

The small girl felt a shiver run down her back and whimpered at the cold low monotone; a cold low monotone that she knew very well and heard every time a certain gynoid wanted things to go her way.

A fox spread out on Chachamaru's head made some giggling sounds as the entire clearing went silent.

Everyone stared in shock as the normally calm Chachamaru instantaneously teleported across the gap between platforms with her trademark big gun already at the ready.

Chao sweat dropped and whispered to the red headed boy beside her, "Wow... I think she was even faster than you were earlier Negi-jiji. If you were light speed, she damn near shattered space and time."

"Er... I learned early on pissing Chachamaru off is usually a very bad idea." He whispered back at her and winced as he rubbed his butt as if remembering a phantom pain.

"Smart boy."

Hakase breathed out in awe at the unusual reaction from her creation, "Wow... I guess an A.I. can really love..."

As if a switch had been flipped at her creator's voice, the gynoid realized what she was doing and immediately seemed like she was deflating into herself and timidly moved back to Hakase's side with a luminous blush, "Sorry..." she muttered shyly.

No one believed her sudden display of shyness and timidity.

"Err... Ok?" Negi muttered as he tried to forget what just happened while Makie turned her attention back to the book.

It wasn't there anymore.

"Eh? Where's the book?"

"Bwahaha I got it!" a voice floated to them from the air.

"Paru! Get back here!" Asuna yelled as she flung her _harisen_ at the artist who was riding a armoured bird of some sort and giggling rather pervertedly.

******Broken Faith******

A figure hiding underneath the shadow of a tree sweat dropped as he watched Negi's party self destruct while Chao started the ritual to send herself back in time and dramatically floated into the sky with a flashy exit.

He winced and rubbed his temples to alleviate the pain.

As soon as he heard Chao call him Naruto-jiji, his memories of that day had returned in a tidal wave and with it, came a massive headache. Urgh... he really hated memory seals. He remembered when the one his father put on him broke, he had been bed ridden for a week while Akane tried to put his scrambled brain back together.

Incidentally that was also part of the reason why he didn't go rampaging in Konoha at the time, he was too confused to even tell left from right, much less commit a massacre.

Anyway, as soon as his memories returned, the missing pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place and he could finally see the reason behind the entire Mahora Festival fiasco.

Sighing slightly at the missed opportunity to speak to someone that might genuinely be his family, he faded into the shadows with another wince.

Reappearing in an abandoned pavilion, the blonde walked around the edge, breathing the night air deeply to lessen the pain.

As he trailed one finger on the marble banister he realized this was also the place where he first realized that Chao was literally family and related to him by blood.

How ironic.

He didn't really have a place in mind when he shunshined away. he just wanted a place to be alone for a while.

**Play Angel Beats! OST – Ichiban no Takaramono**

"I was hoping you were here."

The blonde jerked up in surprise at the voice and spun around to see an apprehensive Chao Lingshen slowly walking towards him, still wearing her ragged uniform and one half of her usual bun spilled down her back in a untidy mess.

"You-But-How-huh?"

The Martian giggled slightly at his dumbstruck expression before dimming again, "I wanted to talk to you earlier but you weren't there. And I couldn't outright ask to speak to you because I didn't want anybody to know there was more than a passing relationship between us."

Naruto smirked, "You make it sound so wrong, and for your information I don't do incest."

Chao pouted, "Mou, jii-chan meanie."

Naruto laughed and held his arms open to her.

Without hesitation the girl flung herself into his arm and buried her face in his chest.

Without realizing it, years of tension bled out from her shoulders. Year after year of planning, of back breaking efforts and cunning moves. Everything had been executed properly and she had technically lost yet all she now felt was a profound relief. All the building pressure she had suffered under ever since she had hatched this plan was gone. It was a wonderful feeling.

All there was at the moment was her jii-chan and her.

Without realizing it, she had started crying into his chest.

Tears of happiness and relief.

Naruto patted her back with a soft smile playing on his lips.

"Thank you."

The girl in ragged clothes giggled wetly, "Why are you thanking me? I literally forced everyone you know to participate in a senseless war, you should be angry at me."

"I'm not happy about that part of the plan but I wasn't talking about that."

He paused and wiped her tears away with a handkerchief before pulling out an elastic ribbon he usually kept with him for Akako and neatly looping her messy hair into one acceptable ponytail, "There, now you don't look like some mess Akako dragged in." Chao giggled and pouted at his gentle teasing.

"I was referring to the meeting with Ichibi, Hachibi and Akane once again. I realized it once my memories came back. The reason you couldn't tell me about your plans. If you had told me, I would have looked forward to the meeting by preparing myself. The talk with Akane wouldn't have been sincere; preparing myself would have lessened the value in the... conversation that followed."

Chao smiled unsurely, "I'm not sure what you mean by conversation but I didn't really know what I was hoping for," she admitted. "Even at my best estimate, I fully expected you to kill me before moving on."

Naruto's eyes widened at her frank assessment of her possible death, "Wh-Why would I do something like that?"

Chao shrugged and averted her eyes, "The plan had two ultimate goals. Either one was fine by me; the first was if I had succeeded in spreading knowledge about magic despite everything. The second was if the first failed, I could rest easy knowing that I at least prepared you and Negi-jiji for the future by giving you what you lacked in the future."

The blonde's eyes narrowed sharply, "Even at the cost of your life?"

She nodded firmly.

Naruto slapped her.

"Is your life worth so little? Do you really think I, no do you think your grandfathers from the future would be happy if everything they did came to you sacrificing yourself for something so trivial?" he demanded from the stunned girl.

Chao backed away in shock with wide eyes, one hand touching the red mark on her cheek, "I-it's not trivial! You and Negi-jiji died because of me! I had to do something, anything! If I hadn't done anything, you would have continued on as you were, in my future, your regret never went away, the _Black Paladin_ stayed Black! Something happened, you two had a goal, to save a lot of people but lacked the power to do so, but it was a half victory at best, a postponement of the inevitable! Especially with your regret and the constant fear of dying by that seal holding you back! I came back so that the two of you can get stronger and achieve a true victory!"

By the time she ended her rant she was crying.

Naruto looked sadly at the crying girl, "Even if we failed, do you really think we would actively sacrifice our granddaughter for a goal like that? Even if we were to die and fail, I would want my family to live on at least. I can't force you to put more value on your own life, but you should remember that to me, to your real grandfathers, to your mother, to your father, your life is absolutely priceless even if you don't think so."

Chao looked like she had been slapped again as she slowly slid to her knees.

Naruto knelt down and gathered her into his arms where she sobbed quietly, "The good of the many is one thing; family is another. I don't know if I can speak for Negi, but I will damn myself to hell and back before I let my granddaughter die for the so called Greater Good. Family always comes first."

Chao sniffled and smiled, "That's what Akako-nee san said when she refused her 300th suitor."

Three words stood out to Naruto.

The first was Nee-san.

The second was three hundred.

The third was **suitor**.

"Wait you're my daughter? Suitor? Where? Who? He'll taste my **BLADE**!"

The girl in his chest sweat dropped as flaming blue swords sprung out of nowhere.

She... probably shouldn't have said that...

Her father was probably one of the bravest men in her rather large extended family.

It took him **23 times **before he gathered enough courage to ask her mother's hand in marriage.

**19** of those times he didn't even make it **into** the compound before he fainted.

It **probably** didn't help that her biological grandfather was the _God of Lightning_ while the _God of Blades_ literally lived next door. Needless to say, all her other uncles that married into the family were well and truly whipped. There was even one uncle who tried 80 times... well... she had to at least give him credit for persistence.

Unsurprisingly, none of her aunts had any problems of the sort. Come to think of it... her family was filled with a lot of... **strong **women. Emphasis on the strong.

So she did the most natural thing. She bonked her so called grandfather on the head, "Settle down!"

He obediently did so with a mulish expression on his face and the flaming blades all disappeared as well.

Chao giggled at the expression and sighed at his stubbornness, "I'm not your daughter, I just call her that because decades later, Akako-nee san... err... never grew up?"

That was an understatement.

She was probably way past her eighties at the time and still looked fifteen going on early twenty-ish, for some reason. Chao suspected that she just loved to be the darling of the family.

"And don't scare away all the future husbands! If you do I might not be born!" Chao scolded her mulish grandfather with an equally mulish expression.

The two of them stared at each other defiantly before the older child finally relented, "Ok ok, but I get to choose."

Chao rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Point taken." She drooped slightly, "I won't do something like that again."

"No more using that soul eating seal thingy?"

"You made it!"

Naruto looked at her like she was stupid, "Why would I make something so stupid for?"

"There was a ritual that could turn Chachamaru-baa chan human, but it required a hugely powerful magic user and the user had to be_ intimately_ in tune with her soul. Negi couldn't do it because of that uh... requirement, so you tried to upgrade that memory translation seal that Negi-jiji uses to convert chakra into magic forcefully. It was never finished because you were..." Chao gulped sadly.

"Ah... speaking of which, why are you even using something like that? As one of our descendants shouldn't you at least have magic or chakra?"

Chao lowered her face shamefully and was silent for a long while.

Naruto was starting to get uncomfortable with her long silence until she finally spoke, "I don't and will never do. I was the runt of the family; the only person in the whole family tree without magic or chakra. That's why I kept pranking people, because I wanted attention. Our family loved me, don't get me wrong, but there was always this glass wall separating me and them, a gap that separated my dull life from the magic filled fantasy life everyone else had... a chasm I couldn't breach, a life where I could only watch from the outside. They treated me like an invalid! No one cared about a runt except you..."

The girl looked at him with tearful eyes, "Only Naruto-jiji cared enough about me. You told me that you were the same when you were younger, no one cared about you, no one acknowledged you as well. You gave me confidence in myself. Then you taught me other things, that is why I'm so good at hand to hand fighting and studying, you showed me that I could be the best even without magic or chakra."

Naruto understood and simply hugged her tighter and he silently listened to her sobs.

He leaned back into the marble banister and silently waited for her to calm herself down as he rubbed her back soothingly.

Hours might have passed before the girl lifted her head and smiled wetly at her grandfather, "I have to go soon jiji..."

Naruto nodded, not knowing what to say to someone that was supposed to be his granddaughter a few times removed until he thought of something. The blonde squinted at his descendant, "Speaking of leaving, didn't you already leave earlier? How did you get back?"

Chao laughed mischievously despite her red puffy eyes, "I didn't really leave. As long as I there is a compatible source of power nearby I can move along the time line whenever I want, that means I just stayed in the 7 day period where the tree is active. Earlier I just turned back time to the beginning to the Festival and came back here again. Right now, there are twenty six compatible sources all around the world, including the World Tree. In my time line, there was only five." she made a gesture with her hand that Naruto took to mean something bad had happened to them.

Seeing the blonde nod along with her, she continued, "Let's say that power source in the future has a six day grace period and comes about every 10 years. That means as long as I rewind time to stay in that six day time period, I can theoretically come back whenever I want. If I miss it, then the next time you see me, I'll probably be ten years older."

"Very interesting, was it me or were you the one to improve the Hiraishin to that degree?"

Chao's eyes widened, "You knew?"

"As soon as I inspected the magical array the time piece creates." He replied with a smirk. "The Hiraishin is more or less a localized version of your Cassiopeia with only the time stop function available, though it took a while before I managed to unravel everything. I only truly noticed when you used those bigger arrays earlier." He acknowledged with an easy smile.

Chao pouted at being outwitted. Naruto laughed at her cute pout.

For a split second, she felt like she was 6 years old again and being held by her grandfather as he taught her how to fight. She remembered that he was the reason that she tried so hard in everything, she didn't want to disappoint the only person who actually bothered to teach and love someone like her.

******Later that night******

Dim moonlight shone upon the blonde shinobi as he lay in his bed with a snoring lump of fur on his chest and a gynoid curled up in his side as he considered everything Chao had told him in the depths of his mind.

If the Festival hadn't happened, if he hadn't met Akane again, it was likely he never changed his ways; that he went around screwing up people's minds without much mercy or forgiveness. He understood that sometimes, although force and violence was a great power and a wonderful method of persuading people to see things his way, it usually only brought more problems in the long run.

On the other hand, there were times when sincerity and trust were equal or even greater motivators.

Ah... sometimes ignorance was truly bliss. The politest way to describe him in his youth was stupidly naive yet that naiveté had allowed him to achieve so much by virtue of the simple fact that he simply didn't know it wasn't possible. Yet as the highs were orgasmic, the downs were traumatic because he trusted and loved without reserve, the recipients were simply unable to match up with the devotion he gave them.

Konoha's citizens were a good example.

The face of a white masked feminine boy in hunter ninja garbs flashed in his mind's eye.

He smiled fondly at the memory of Haku. A memory he had not perused in years.

He remembered what Rakan had said, that knowledge had truly limited him.

In any case, it had probably caused him to stop short of this goal that Chao mentioned. A goal where the lives of many hung in the balance.

Huh... shouldn't be that to figure out, there were only so many times where the apocalypse was coming and he was the only thing standing between it and the rest of the world.

Oh wait... damn.

More than he wanted to count. And knowing his shitty luck, the count would keep going up.

Meh... back to the old routine then.

Wing it as it comes and hope he didn't break something **too** important, or too many of them anyway.

Naruto smiled wryly, considering his track record, it really wasn't a comforting decision.

He briefly wondered what happened to do him and his family in, quickly quieting the flare of anger at such a thought, but immediately ditched that line of thought. There too many ways of dying and there probably was an equally numerous list of people that might do it if he kept offing people. Even if he permanently silenced the main threat, their precious ones would never forgive him.

Especially since it was even more than likely that his attitude only got worse as time passed.

A never ending circle of hatred.

A new balance was needed.

******Broken Faith******

"Naruto, will you be busy today?"

The blonde looked up from where he had been playing with Akako, throwing a small ball of yarn for her to chase, "Yeah I suppose. I asked to train with Michi today, then Al wants a meeting with me, I heard Negi and the others will be there as well."

"I see..." the green haired gynoid quieted for a moment.

Naruto frowned, "What's wrong? You know you can talk to me about anything."

"Ah," the gynoid looked up in slight surprise, "No it's nothing. I was... simply wondering if I needed to cook your portion of dinner as well. I was also planning on talking to Hakase today so I was wondering if you would take care of Akako today."

"Of course." Naruto smiled warmly at her.

The gynoid ducked her head down to hide a blush, "I-I also made a bentou for your lunch. Wi-will you take it with you?"

"Anything you made will be delicious."

Chachamaru smiled slightly and finished cleaning their room before leaving for her _appointment _with Hakase.

Naruto watched her leave with a slightly confused glint in his sapphire eyes before simply shrugging and picking up a squirming Akako. He gently scratched her white tummy, causing her to purr lightly, "You'll always be a daddy's girl wont you? You won't leave your papa and mama for some dirty guy right?" he cooed affectionately.

"Hai papa!"

Naruto smiled and left the cabin with Akako riding on his head like a red flag.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto panted hard as he dodged a powerful punch that blew a crater in solid rock.

"What's wrong Naruto! You're far slower and weaker than normal!" his opponent taunted him.

"Bleh! I don't to hear that from someone that can't stop smoking for even 5 minutes dammit!"

"Then fight back and show me rather than talking at me! You are the one who suddenly wanted to train with me!"

"Muuu..." panting angrily, the blonde ducked under another punch and slipped into Takahata's guard with a side step before planting a fist in his guts hard enough to blow the older teacher into the air, "Adeat!" Takahata watched in slow motion as the blonde reached behind him and pulled a large shining sword from dimensional rift in thin air before splitting it into several smaller blades that was hurled in his direction in one smooth move.

He grinned; the blonde was finally getting serious, and activated his Kanka, blowing the blades away with simple gestures before aiming at the blonde once more.

Naruto skidded to a spot and spun, barely dodging Takahata's trademark massive punch, finishing it off with a swing of the main blade in his hands that shot a crescent wave of energy at the teacher.

Takahata grunted and began rapidly punching the air beneath him, slowing down his descent so that the attack missed him completely, he was just about to land when he realized it was a trap, the entire floor had been laid with bluish white chains of some sort, out of the corner of his eyes he noticed that the ends of each chain was tautly connected with the smaller blades he had blasted of course earlier.

Activating a basic flotation magic array, he managed to stall for barely a second when Naruto started throwing a barrage of energy attacks at him. He deflected each one with his iai-ken until he felt something smashed into his back, throwing him into the chains below.

Twisting around Takahata noticed that at least one of energy attacks was a disguised clone that managed to flank him while he was distracted by the original Naruto flinging dangerous attacks like candy at him. With attacks coming from all directions, the teacher gave up and let himself be captured with a resigned smile.

The blonde sighed as he wiped the sweat off with a towel while the older teacher did the same beside him.

He leaned back tiredly on the cool wall until a voice disturbed his thoughts, "What was wrong with you today? No offence, but you were far weaker than normal. I mean yeah, you always use traps of some sort, but usually traps or tricks are a back up rather than the first line of defence for you."

Naruto let out an explosive sigh at the question, by his estimation his max combat capabilities had dropped by at least 20%. Put simply, he moved slower and couldn't hit quite as hard anymore. If he could describe the bittersweet feeling it would be like now a punch was just that a punch, it was powerful true, but before, he punched like he was determined to put his arm through his target. Though he admitted it felt good not to want to permanently maim all his opponents whenever he fought, the malicious flame in his gut no longer burned as brightly as it once did.

He gave a small smile, even if he was weaker, he marked it up as an improvement, "I had a revelation of sorts you could say, and as a result I gained a few new abilities but lost some power in return."

"New abilities? Like those chains?"

By way of reply the huge blade suddenly reappeared and Takahata's eyes widened in shock as Naruto stabbed him through the torso with it.

A few moments of silence passed as Naruto leaned back into the wall, sipping water from a water bottle calmly while Takahata desperately tried not to hyperventilate at the thought of being killed like this. It was only after he heard a low chuckle from the blonde beside him that he realized something.

He felt no pain whatsoever. No blood either now that he had enough brain capacity to think about it.

Naruto pulled the massive blade out of him with a mischievous smile, "You could say those chains are just something I... rediscovered. That sword on the other hand is a new ability. As long as you don't mean me harm, the blade cannot harm you either." He smiled at the blade lightly, "Pushy, protective woman."

The teacher leaned back with a relieved sigh before whacking the blonde upside the head, "Next time warn me before you do something like that. I thought I was going to die for a moment. Even if your blade didn't kill me, the heart attack would have!"

"What was that? Did I hear something along the lines of Naruto-sama was right and that smoking is bad?"

Takahata snorted and whacked him again just because he felt like it.

And because if he didn't, he would have started throttling the laughing blonde.

Meanwhile the blonde's laughter belied his darker thoughts. The fight he just had with Takahata just reaffirmed what he already knew. He was now weaker. Therefore he had to become stronger. In his mind there was no other option.

But this time he would strike a balance between enlightenment and naiveté.

A balance between sincerity and cunningness.

A new balance.

******Broken Faith******

Sometime during the day after the festival, deep within the tunnels of library island, in front of the gates that led to Albireo's house stood Negi, Asuna Konoka and Setsuna. Setsuna came with an assortment of weapons, namely various blades on her back, while Asuna had her sword out as well. In front of them stood the dragon that had attacked them the first time Negi came down there.

Offhandedly Negi remembered this was also the same dragon that Naruto had downed with a so called '_Iron Wall'_ in the other time line.

He decided his head wasnt quite that hard yet, therefore he took the safer option.

Nervously putting his hand into his pocket, the red head took out a piece of paper with the words "Invitation for Mr. Negi Springfield." The dragon took one look at it, nodded its large bony head and flew away with big flaps of its huge wings.

The group then let out a collective sigh of relief. "Thank Kami we didn't have to fight that thing," Setsuna said aloud as they walked through the doors.

"I agree. We'd be in serious trouble if we had to fight something like that," Asuna replied before adding quietly, "And I really didn't feel like trying to hit that thing with my head no matter how hard Iincho claims it is."

All four of them glanced at each other until Negi blurted out, "How did you know what I was thinking?"

All was silent for a moment before they shared a laugh as they realized they were all thinking the same ridiculous thing.

When they got through they were met by a breath taking sight. In front of the group was Albireo's oddly shaped home, surrounded by a picturesque scene of large trees and glittering waterfalls.

"Wow..." Konoka said in wonder taking in the beauty of the sight. "This is the kinda of place you can just imagine a mage living in." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. They climbed up some stairs that lead to the front door and entered.

"Man this place is full of books," Asuna grumbled as they passed by numerous shelves.

"I wonder where KuNel-san is?" Konoka said.

'_I'm over here,' _a soft voice that unmistakably belonged to their eccentric host echoed in each of their minds. Following the voice the group came up to a terrace to find the slender man smiling at them, with Eva sitting on a floating ball next to him. "Welcome to my tea party, I've been waiting for you."

"Took you long enough," Eva added as she took a sip of tea. "The other idiot here got tired of waiting and wandered off somewhere."

"Naru-kun is here too?" Konoka asked.

"He's somewhere around," Eva gestured up the winding staircase vaguely, "I think he was messing around with another new creation."

Ignoring the comments about his eccentric adopted brother, Negi cleared his throat to get the attention of their equally eccentric host, "Um KuN...no Albireo-san..."

"Negi-kun!" Albireo said sternly.

A little startled by the stern tone, Negi deflated, "Y-Yes?"

"I believe that I had requested to be called KuNel Sanders."

"Um... uh... Sorry KuNel-san..."

"Very well done," he nodded approvingly while Evangeline simply rolled her eyes at the former Ala Rubra's theatrics, "Now let's take this conversation up there, where we can sit and eat some food," Albireo suggested and everyone nodded.

"What's with the stupid name anyway Al?" Eva asked. You get addicted to the chicken while you were up there?" Albireo who was walking in the front suddenly stopped walking and turned around to face his guests.

"Negi-kun, Setsuna-san, Asuna-san, Konoka-san, I don't believe I've properly introduced my young friend here," he said as he casually gestured at the vampire, "I don't believe that she ever told you her full name either, correct?" he said with a glint that was obvious even in his squinty eyes.

The little vampire's eyes widened in horror, "N-no! Don't say it Albireo!" Eva yelled in panic. The mage completely ignored the little blond.

"Al?"

Still no response.

Relenting, the vampire wheedled quietly, "KuNel?"

"Yes, Kitty?" the sarcastic librarian asked with a bright smile. Negi and the three girls couldn't help the small giggles as an enraged Eva began to shake Albireo from side to side and pummel him with her small fists.

"I told you to never call me by that name!"

"I think it's adorable. Don't you Negi-kun?" Albireo laughed.

Negi didn't dare to reply. Partly because he was too busy keeping his lips shut in case he started laughing and partially because he knew if he said anything he probably wouldn't survive his next training session with the vampire.

After all the theatrics and comedy was said and done, the group sat around a table full of different types of sweets, fruits and teas. "This is really good tea. It's wonderful, and has a taste of plums," Negi commented on the cup of tea he was drinking.

"You think so? I have many other kinds of tea too," Albireo said. "Please enjoy my humble services. I don't get many guests recently."

"Either because you live under a tree or because you're an asshole. Probably because you're an asshole." Evangeline grumbled from beside him.

"Did you say something Kitty?"

Evangeline leapt at him with a snarl and a glowing blade that did a grand total of nothing against the elusive mage.

Completely ignoring the angry vampire that was making hissing noises as she tried to make mincemeat out of him Albiero casually continued his conversation, "How about you boy? Did things go as expected for you during the Festival?"

"Huh?" Negi replied, not quite hearing the question since his attention was partially on his enraged teacher as she tried to violently kill someone.

"Did you get something out of this entire experience?" Negi nodded his head and took a deep breath.

"Yes I did. I now understand just exactly where...and what I'm getting myself into. No rather I probably knew that even before Chao-san told me. It was just as master said. We cannot keep ourselves clean. No, we were most likely never clean to begin with."

By then Naruto had stopped messing around and listened into Negi's speech along with the girls. Setsuna had a serious look on her face, Asuna had food in her mouth and Konoka looked confused by the whole thing.

Evangeline nodded approvingly, "If you look with a lucid eye, you will realize that 'being alive' means the same thing as 'doing evil.' As this is how the world is structured, no one can escape from this law. 'Evil,' to be sure, is the truth of the world. Were you finally able to reach that recognition?"

"That's not what I meant Evangeline-sensei."

That reply threw her off her rant.

"When I said we are not clean, I did not mean evil. When you say that the world is basically structured around a foundation that says the strong rule while the weak die, I agree because in order to live, we as humans need resources." He lifted the cup of tea in his hands, "Whenever we consume something, we deny other's the right to do the same. In that sense you are right. That is evil. That is basically why I fought Chao-san I hesitated so much. That is also what I meant by not being clean. By fighting her, I denied her choices; I denied her entire reason for being here."

He glared at the liquid in the cup, "I am not proud of it. But I won't back down either. To me it's not right. If being good means standing back and watching people die then I rather be evil. It's as simple as that. The world will never be perfect. If I keep worrying about what every little action does or does not do, I might as well condemn the whole world to Armageddon; same results, just faster and less gray hairs." Negi added wryly.

"So I will make sure to do the best I can in every situation, to keep everyone around me happy, but at the same time I recognize that I am not God. I cannot stop everyone's suffering but if I can help alleviate it I will as long as my own principles are not violated. That's why I cannot abide by your opinion that just living is evil. That's just too cynical for me because Life itself is precious in every way."

He shot a penetrating stare at the vampire, "I know deep down you believe that as well."

"Oh?" the vampire spoke challengingly.

"Yes. Because if you didn't, you wouldn't be right here, right now. You stayed alive, killed people, crawled, struggled and fought just so you can live. Isn't that what being a human means? To crawl, to fight and to struggle just so that you can see a new sunrise every morning? Don't deny it either because I know Nii-san trusts you. If anything; that usually means you are an intrinsically good person at heart thus we can come to the conclusion that you claim that living is evil because in some way you are repenting for your actions. You recognize that it is evil and you try not to be too excessive."

The vampire was struck speechless.

A slow clapping resonated around the elevated platform.

"Well said. Very well said."

"Nii-san!"

Naruto smiled as he dropped into the sofa next to Evangeline, "You learnt a lot from Chao eh?"

Negi blushed at the praise and nodded happily.

"Evangeline's outlook on life is a little too bleak," He petted her head fondly, "Semantics and philosophical arguments aside, it comes out to the same. You fight to live and keep everyone precious to you together, because that's all you can do. That's _**all**_ we can do and it's definitely worth doing well."

The vampire spluttered and whacked his hand away.

Negi smiled softly, "If it's worth doing, then it's worth doing well eh nii-san? You said that as you defeated Fate as well."

Al laughed slightly at the brother's interactions, "But still, it is as expected from someone like Evangeline," Albireo complimented the vampire. "Being able to guide an honest young man this far. I guess some of the best teachers are the bad guys. Does this mean that someday the son of a hero would turn into an evil great mage? Or in this case the successor of the Dark Evangel?"

"It's nothing like that. Besides what's with you! Don't go butting into the education policies of others! The brat is the one who said he wanted to become my apprentice you know! I'm free to do whatever I want."

"Hahaha, you are right. Please excuse me." Then Albireo turned towards Negi. "Well, with that recognition, what will you do from now on?"

"Yeah otouto? What are you going to do from now on?" Naruto asked, trying to see where the person who has been the trouble of his new life will go.

"I-I will still aim to become a Magister magi after all. Now that I have stopped Chao-san's plan, I cannot afford to stand still. I have to continue on ahead. That's why I wish to become a proper mage, although perhaps not the same way as dad...and help out as many people as I can. Is that weird?" Naruto smirked and walked over to his friend. He then gave him a pat on the back.

Negi nodded, understanding that his eccentric brother said all that was needed to be said with that action.

Al nodded approvingly. "If that is the case Negi-kun...how about you be **my** apprentice?"

From her place on the couch Evangeline spat out her tea, causing Naruto to casually step aside, narrowly avoiding a face full of hot tea.

"Eh?" everyone said at the same time.

"Nii-san?"

Said blonde simply shrugged, "Both of them can mold you into a great Magister. The only difference from my point of view is that Albiero will also mold you into a great perverted Magister. Evangeline will also make you into a great perverted Magister... only in a different orientation if you get my gist." He said with a wink and a conspiratory nudge.

"What!" Evangeline protested indignantly as Negi looked at him cluelessly while Asuna thwacked him on the head.

"Mou... what is with you people and hitting my head today? Isn't anybody worried that I might lose a few brain cells?"

"We would if you had any if in the first place!"

"Asuna- chan... so mean..." Naruto transformed into a cuddly five year old and pouted at her.

"Mu-must not yi-yield!"

"Naruto's antics aside, I mean as a teacher she's no good," Albireo stated out as in as a matter of fact tone. Naruto merely squawked as he was literally squeezed up by a squealing Konoka.

"If you have her as a teacher it's like giving up your life you know?"

"What the hell did you say?" Eva screamed.

"I mean with me, aside from the obvious perks, you can learn more about the Thousand Master's fighting style," Albiero continued on as if Evangeline hadn't spoken at all.

"And there's the fact that she is an ice-type mage as well. Not very good as a wind mage teacher," Albireo added conspiratorially. Eva's jaw dropped in disbelief and her face red with anger.

"Ca-can't breathe! A-Al! He-help!"

"And you know that I am very skilled in gravity magic as well. Very useful those; Naruto has some pretty fancy gravity moves in his repertoire as well. Don't you want to learn them?" he smirked as he dangled the bait in front of a sparkly eyed Negi while Evangeline raged impotently.

"Grarrh! Thats it! You're dead KuNel!" Eva shouted as she started trying to slice him again.

"Yes, Kitty?" The mage replied casually even as her energy blade passed through him harmlessly causing Eva to gain a tick mark on her forehead.

"Stop calling me that! And stop trying to poach my apprentice! What are you scheming Albireo...I mean KuNel! What is your objective of making the boy your apprentice!"

"My objective?"

He smirked, "To get you frustrated and flustered obviously"

"**DIE!"**

******Broken Faith******

Once everything had calmed down once more, Konoka tried to steer the conversation to a safer vein, "Back to topic, what was the main reason you invited us here Colonel-san?" Konoka asked.

Her words were serious.

Her death grip on the slightly blue faced blonde child on her lap was not.

KuNel smiled, "Ah. I promised some information for Negi about his father if he won the Tournament did I not? I simply thought it would be better if it was said with everyone who needed to hear it present."

"Is it true then?" Negi asked.

"It is true. Your father is still alive I can guarantee you that," Negi told them.

"YES!" the girls cheered. "That's so great isn't that Negi?" Asuna asked.

"Y-yes!" He then turned to his dad's old friend. "Where is he?"

"That I do not know," Albireo answered hesitantly.

"T-then how do you know he's still alive?"

"That's because of this," Albireo replied pulling out his pactio card. "This is the card between me and the Thousand Master. This card is 'alive.' This is the proof of his survival. While these," Albireo pulled out several other cards that looked like his current one, but missing many, many details, "these cards are dead."

"At least we know he's still alive. Do you have any leads?"

"Not from me. However if you want to find him, you should head back to England or Wales. Over there is the door that leads to Mundus Magicus, the Magical World." Suddenly around Negi a violent tornado appeared. In the eye was Negi, with a determined smile on his face. After a moment it died down and he looked at everyone. His eyes were sparkling and he had a happy demeanor on his face.

"Well, then I'm off!" Negi. This caused everyone to face fault except for Albireo. As he did a quick step, Naruto appeared and grabbed him by the collar of his suit.

"And where do you think you're going baka?" Naruto asked in a deadpanned voice.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Eva asked appearing next to the blond. "Besides do you think you can just waltz over there?'

"Yeah! Geez, whenever it comes to your dad, you just lose sight of everything around you!" Asuna reprimanded him.

"It gets annoying Negi," Naruto frowned.

"B-but I can't just stand around doing nothing..." Negi defended himself.

"Well, you can help me teach the girls for their final exams."

"Gah! I almost forgot about those! Nii-san is gonna fail so badly!"

"What? Where the hell did your faith in me go?"

"Fufu...It looks like you'll have to put it off until later."

"GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE!" a voice suddenly called out. Everyone turned towards the entrance and saw that everyone from team Negi has appeared, even dragging along Chisame. They then started to eat and party like usual.

"My my I forgot I invited them too," Albireo sighed as his new guests completely ignored him in favour for fawning over Negi.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Persona 3 OST – Kimi no Kioku**

Chachamaru knocked gently on the door, "Hakase, are you free? Can I come in?"

She heard a few crashes on the other side of the door and various mumbled curses that she probably shouldn't record into her dictionary.

The door swung open to show a messy Hakase with her usual braided pony tails in a lopsided mess while she struggled to pull up a skirt.

"Ah... do you want me to wait while you get ready?"

"No, no, there's no need for something like that. Besides it's not like I have anything to hide." The professor glanced at the gynoid, "So what brings you here today? It's unlike you to request a meeting outside of your usual checkups and upgrades."

"Ah. I had a little problem... and I'm not sure who to go to for advice..." she trailed off, the implication of her unique situation was enough for even the socially stunted professor to grasp.

Chuckling slightly, the messy girl ushered the gynoid to a seat, "Don't worry too much," she smiled softly at the gynoid, "Even if I look like this, I really care for you. So you can tell me anything that's worrying you."

'_Even if it shouldn't be...'_ the professor added in the security of her own mind.

The gynoid looked down, embarrassed at the show of caring from her creator, "I... I want to have children."

Hakase Satomi was a hard person to shock; her interactions with Chao over a two year long period only reinforced that notion, especially since the precocious Chinese girl started breaking all her preconceptions about science by introducing advanced quantum mechanics and theories that were almost impossible by the level of present day technology on a nearly daily basis.

Hakase Satomi blinked.

Then she blinked again and dug in her ears with a pinky finger. When that turned up with nothing she tried using a pencil.

Once she had finally calmed down after Chachamaru narrowly stopped her from inserting a pencil into her ear, Satomi slumped into her chair tiredly, whatever she was expecting, it wasn't this.

"Let's start again," she spoke slowly, "You want a child? Or more specifically, you want multiple children."

Chachamaru nodded.

"The same way a human woman would have one?"

She nodded again and Satomi started rubbing her temples as her mind ran theory after theory about possible upgrades to mimic a human's pregnancy.

Giving up she refocused on the obviously nervous gynoid, "While I'm not saying it's completely impossible, why the sudden interest in having children? Rather, I thought this was just a crush, how did it get to something like this?"

Chachamaru literally wilted in front of her eyes.

"I'm well aware I'm not human..." the gynoid raised a jointed fist and clenched it to emphasize her words, "I shouldn't even be able to feel something as... subjective and esoteric as love. My original programming never covered anything as complex as this. Yet..."

Satomi nodded with what she hoped was a compassionate expression. Someone she considered a daughter was asking about children. It was a very strange feeling, bittersweet, but more on the bitter side of things, especially since she had never even saw a single male in a romantic light before.

"My original programming required me to emulate caring and protectiveness to three specific people. You, Chao-san and Master. Over time I found that to keep all three of you happy, I should also keep everything precious to you happy, so I cared about most of 3-A. When Na... Naruto showed up... he shouldn't even be factored into my decisions considering his near refusal to join class activities at the time. But somehow by treating me like he treated everyone else..." the gynoid shrugged helplessly, "I found I want to care about him even if it made no sense. Then he became important to Master and I found an excuse to hide behind but the alogical feeling did not go away."

"The other day, during our scheduled checks when I ran away," Satomi nodded, realizing that the green haired android was referring to the time she had nearly gone berserk, "I realized one thing. My one and biggest priority was always Master Evangeline, but that day I found that my loyalty was split between Naruto and Master... I didn't know what to do..."

"I wanted to keep him happy, so I read about what women would do to keep those important to them happy... it mentioned... err.. a lot of things I would never be capable off."

**Hakase found herself speechless for the second time in under an hour.**

"Err... what was the book's title?"

"Playboy."

**Third time speechless plus she felt like hitting something or someone that was preferably blonde even if he didn't know why**, "Who in the **World** gave you the idea that a porn magazine would help keep your partner happy?"

"Chamo-san."

**Fourth time with a reminder to fry an ermine sometime soon.**

"I came to the conclusion that I would never be able to satisfy Naruto physically,"

**Fifth time with a huge blush.**

The gynoid continued in a monotone that somehow made the whole discussion even worse, "Therefore I came to the conclusion that because I am unable to do it, I would allow Naruto to see other girls, such as Konoka."

**Sixth time. **_**'Oh God' **_**and several other less polite words were making their way across Satomi's mind.**

"But then I talked with Chisame. That day on a Ferris wheel she asked me something I had never really considered before."

_**Flashback**_

Pale green eyes shone in the darkening shy as she slowly stroked her fingers through her sleeping homeroom teacher's red hair.

Opposite her, amber eyes watched the gynoid's fingers with a curious glint in them, "You've more or less avoided the question every time I mentioned it before but don't you think you should come clean?"

"I am not sure I understand what you mean Chisame-san."

The auburn haired girl gestured at the sleeping homeroom teacher, "You mentioned that your relationship with Negi-sensei was satisfactory, that you were sparring partners, but to someone like me it almost seems like you care for him, too much. You seem too happy for it to be normal."

The gynoid tilted her head in confusion, "Is it wrong to care for him? He is important to my Master. He is also important to Naruto-san, that is reason enough for me to care for him is it not?"

"Naruto? That crazy blonde guy in our class?"

Chachamaru nodded.

"That insane idiot that lost an arm and somehow grew it back?"

Another nod.

Chisame blinked, "What are you to him?"

"I am... dating him?"

Whatever she was expecting, that wasn't it and Chisame somehow managed to choke on air.

"Ah, are you alright?"

Chisame barely managed to swallow the lump in her throat and waved the gynoid's assistance away, "Do-don't get me wrong, but you aren't human right? Magic is great an all but you can't miraculously have a pregnancy right? Give birth to organic children?"

Chachamaru paused in thought before slowly shaking her head, "I have no such information in all my extensive databases about magic."

"Then why is he dating you?"

"Sorry?"

"I don't get what you're apologizing about since I should be the one doing it," the red head muttered under her breath, "Anyway, to be absolutely blunt. I don't have the slightest clue about romance but even I can tell that you aren't human but he is. Someday soon, he will want children, a loving wife waiting for him. Warm skin to skin contact etcetera. No offense, but I really don't see him staying around unless he is just playing with you."

"I am perfectly aware of that and have considered allowing him to romance other women to fill the holes in his life that I am unable to. That would be the most logical conclusion."

Chisame looked at her in horror, "A harem? That's what you are implying!"

Chachamaru blinked, "I... suppose so."

The cosplayer shook her head, "So you allow him to find warmth and children elsewhere. Find others who can give him the kind of organic love you can't," Chisame stared at her with something Chachamaru couldn't quite identify.

Was it pity?

"Then what about you? If everything else is being relegated to other people, what role would you have in his new life?"

For once Chachamaru did not know what to say.

**End Flashback**

"_What was the extent of your relationship with Naruto? Someday he will want children or crave the warmth of a lover's touch. Sure you can give other people that right, what will you do then? Just be an observer staring into a happy family from outside the window?"_

Chachamaru paused and stared sadly at her jointed knees, "I cannot provide for him. I cannot even give him my loyalty because it will always be split between him and Master. He cannot touch me; and I cannot provide children for him like any other women could."

"Maybe I am being too greedy... but I want him to look at me more..."

Chachamaru finally looked straight into Hakase's chocolate brown eyes. She could see tears start to flow, "Then what am I to him Hakase? What is my place in his life? I don't want to lose him, but it seems like it is the only option..."

Hakase took a very deep breath, "I'm... not sure... I've never had to deal with something like this before."

The gynoid looked down disappointedly, "Oh..."

Satomi smiled and looked around her cluttered lab, "Look around Chachamaru. I'm a disappointment aren't I? I can't even advise my own daughter about her love. How can I, when I'm semi permanently stuck in here..."

"No... You are a truly good person..." Chachamaru weakly tried to protest but the professor held a hand up to stop her, "The hallmark of a good scientist is to know where his limit is, and then remove it. For now all I can do is advise you to talk to Naruto directly since this seems like a problem between the two of you as a couple."

She smiled slightly, "This is obviously a big weakness that I will have to overcome if I want to become a truly great scientist, but in the future when I have experience myself, I'll come to find you, and then we can talk all night long about love alright as we munch on chocolates and ice cream, alright?"

"I... understand."

As she stood to usher Chachamaru out, Hakase was struck dumb for the seventh time today as the gynoid impulsively leaned in and hugged her tightly, "You may not be able to advise me today, but you are truly a good and caring person... Mother."

Hakase grinned brightly and walked the gynoid out of her lab. As she observed her greatest creation walk away she wiped a few stray tears with the cuffs of her lab coat.

Then she thought of something.

"Chachamaru!"

The figure in the distance turned around with a questioning tilt of the head, "When you talk to Naruto, make sure you remember to mention that it was Chamo that taught you to use that magazine!"

The figure bowed before continuing her walk back home.

Satomi giggled evilly, the blonde could inflict more damage on that idiotic pervert while he was half dead than she could ever even dream off on her best day.

Chamo felt a chill run down his furry back and wondered which one of his crazy schemes would come back to bite him in the furry behind sometime soon.

******Broken Faith******

"Will you take this request?"

A slender finger ran down the paper where the mission details were written down in a neat elegant feminine scrawl, "Likely. Negi seems to be headed that way as well. I'm not really interested in finding Nagi Springfield but I do want to watch out for him. At least this will give me something to do while he chases after his father."

"Shouldn't that be _Our_ Father?"

The blonde shrugged, "It might sound callous but I'm not exactly interested in tilting at windmills, besides all this hype about Nagi Springfield just makes me want to know why everyone seems to just gloss over his apparent wife. The records mention he was officially married but no other mention is made about her."

A finger ran across the name of the client.

"_Theodora Basileia Helladis de Vesperisszimia." _The blonde looked up and smiled at his employer.

Konoemon shivered slightly; there was something about that smile that reminded him of a shark.

A big yellow shark.

"During my research of the magical world to help Negi in his search I realized two things. Nagi Springfield obviously didn't want to be found. If he did, someone would have done it within the past 10 years. I'm not saying that I won't follow if something happens to give Negi a hint about his whereabouts but basically this is Negi's quest, it's his responsibility and I won't interfere with that, but when shit happens, I'll be first in line with a camera and laugh at him before digging him out. With a small shovel. The smallest I can find."

"I uh... see..." the old man stroked his considerably shorter beard, "And the second?"

"Hmm...? Oh. I just found it extremely strange. Information about people as well known as Nagi Springfield is usually very easy to come by and I wasn't wrong about that, there is loads of information about him out there, some of them are even true. Thus by association his romantic partner should receive an equal share of the spotlight. This is where it got weird."

The blonde waved his hand vaguely in the direction of Wales, "I knew her initials so when I looked around for information, in direct contrast to her husband, almost everything related to A.A.E., so called wife of the Thousand Mage was blacked out. Not the_, 'I kept my wife a secret so that people couldn't harm her'_ black out. The kind of black out where someone purposely wanted to prevent her identity from being exposed."

The blonde man paused, "The impression it gave me was as if someone or rather, a lot of someones went through a lot of effort to delete her name from history itself."

The old man shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Which the blonde noticed, "Ah, I see you know of her. Let's make things simple. You can't answer or won't answer?"

"Can't." The dean replied briskly with a hint of sadness. "Even now her name is almost taboo among most Magical World citizens and the event that led to such a miscarriage of justice was put under a high security spell to prevent 'Important information from being known to hostiles'." He emphasized the phrase with mocking gestures, "In other words, it was an incredibly high profile event where a lot of political big wigs were incredibly embarrassed and as long as I am outside Mundus Magicus, I am unable to tell you exactly what she did to piss off so many higher ups despite my position."

The blonde smiled slightly, "I see... That narrows it down then. All this conspiracy stuff just makes me even more interested in her. Someone who can piss off so many people that they actively try to erase her from history? In my books, that puts her near deity status. Bonus points if it was a prank."

"I'm sorry?"

"No need to apologize, I figured as much already."

"Oh? I would be interested to hear your deductions."

"Simply put, they were extremely efficient but even they can't delete everything and for someone like me with a lot of strings to pull, the information is easy to get if you know who to ask. A.A.E or Arika Anarchia Entheofusia. Known regular contacts; all members of the Ala Rubra and a certain Hellas empire princess who was once kidnapped along with her."

A finger landed firmly on the client's name once more.

"Knowing that there seems to be an information block on the subject, the only people that could possibly be excluded from this debacle are either so high up the hierarchy that they have an equally large telephone pole up their behinds or the known contacts themselves."

"This saves me the time of going through a bunch of gossipy informants." He added jokingly.

"I do hope I wasn't included in that telephone pole comment."

Naruto winked at him and slowly strolled out of the office.

Once outside he stretched for a bit before absentmindedly walking down the corridor. Right until he walked into somebody.

"Oof!"

"Kyaa!"

Naruto slowly got up and turned to help the person he had bumped into get up as well.

"Shizuna-chan?"

"Mou... what were you day dreaming about Naru-chan?"

"Ahaha... a little of this and that I suppose. Here let me help you."

He bent down to retrieve her dropped papers when he noticed something about them.

"These are... 3-A's health records?"

The busty teacher pouted slightly, "Protocol is a pain." Naruto chuckled and gestured for her to continue, "Basically Ayaka requested a complete set of all her information but I can only access them in a package, so I'm stuck carrying all of them around."

"Oh? Why would someone need all their information while they were here in Mahora for?" the blonde idly commented.

Shizuna shrugged, "Dunno. The only possible reason I can think of at the moment is for a transfer, especially with the summer holidays so close."

"I see..."

Shizuna frowned slightly as the blonde seemed to space out, "Naruto?" she waved her hands in front of his face, "Naruto!"

The blonde snapped out of it and smiled sheepishly at the teacher, "Sorry about that." He hefted the stack of records into his hands, "Here, let me carry all of these to your office for you."

"You sure? Thanks a lot Naru-chan! My back's been killing me with all the lifting I had to do recently."

Naruto desperately tried not to let his eyes stray anywhere below her chin or make any sort of comments that were even remotely related to lifting.

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note**

**The Bad News:** I lost my USB drive two weeks before exam,

**The Worse News:** At least the next 3 chapters for all three of my stories was in there, including this one and I lost my drive to write fics for a while, especially with mid terms looming up on me.

**The Good news:** Mid terms ended yesterday.

**The Better News:** I am rewriting the lost chapters again, this chapter was largely written from memory and I'm working on pumping out the rest once more. At least I didn't take longer than a month and still managed to stick to my update schedule despite the general mess my life has been.

**Oh and notice the Persona and Angel Beats! Songs? They are shout outs to the upcoming developments from both titles, English release Persona 4 Golden and (maybe) Angel Beats Season 2. **


	26. People Cry When They Are Happy

**Broken Faith 26**

**People Cry When They Are Happy**

**Disclaimer : I Don't own anything; Negima, Naruto or any songs I might use in the making of this piece of fiction.**

Persona 4 Golden is coming out... my inner hardcore gamer and otaku is screaming for me to go out and get a damned PsV. I don't really need it... not interested in any of the games available on the Vita at the moment outside of that obvious one and that P4G isn't even guaranteed to get an English release. **Therefore buying it now is pointless when I can get it waay cheaper in the future with a good game set already out**!

_**This rant serves no other purpose other than to convince myself to shut up, sit down and not grab that shiny, delish console of the nearest shelf until P4 Golden is 100% confirmed and out (September hurry and COMEEE!).**_

**Soundtrack List**

Sousei no Aquarion OST – Pride – Nageki no Tabi

Yuki Kajiura – Hear our Prayer

Ayumi Hamasaki - Heaven

Genesis of Aquarion – AKINO featuring bless4 (English Version)

******Broken Faith******

"Do I want to know why that idiot is doing something idiotic like this?"

Negi shrugged, "Nii-san's been a bit weird lately. He keeps muttering about how he needs to go back to basics."

Kotarou the wolf half demon scratched his head vigorously, "How the hell does sitting still in the middle of a sandstorm while wearing nothing but a pair of swimming trunks constitute basic?"

The little teacher sweat dropped, "When you phrase it that way, even I can't help but feel it's a little stupid but he says it's something to do with chakra control ?"

"Why the hell does it sound like you're asking me instead?"

"Heeeh... that's not a bad idea..." both the half demon and the mage jumped in their seats as a melodious voice interrupted their musings, "Evangeline-sensei!"

"Huhuhu, since the two of you are carefree enough to sit there and watch Naruto like two idiots, you might as well join him... you might even learn something." The vampire smiled viciously before kicking the two of them into the teleporter circle and locking it down so that the two of them couldn't get back into the resort without her permission.

The small robot sitting on her shoulder giggled, "Not that I mind seeing them being tortured a bit more, but won't they die if you just leave them there like that?"

"If they can't even learn something basic like controlling their magic then they probably deserve to die." Evangeline countered Chachazero.

"Controlling their magic? Sitting in a sandstorm does that?"

Evangeline smiled, "Not really. What you have to know is that in a sandstorm, billions of sand grains lash around, grinding away skin and flesh. Now watch the blonde idiot carefully."

The small doll blinked and turned her pale green eyes on the monitor again.

After a few moments of intense staring Chachazero finally frowned, "There's some sort of aura around him, but it's not constant, it keeps flashing for a second before disappearing again."

Evangeline nodded her head approvingly, "I never really thought of doing something like before, probably because I'm so talented I don't have to. Bwahaha!"

"Ahem."

"Cough, cough, right where was I? Oh right, aura. What you are seeing is a thin layer of chakra around him that is protecting him from the lashing sands. It's like a subconscious reaction among humans, when faced with something huge or intimidating, they unconsciously feel the need to reply in kind, but by doing so, they are wasting more energy than needed, like those two smaller idiots,"

Negi and Kotarou were indeed struggling against the buffeting winds and sand by flaring their magic into a noticeable aura to keep their soft flesh safe from the biting storm, but even Chachazero could tell they were rapidly weakening.

"A storm is that, big, flashy and intimidating yet composed of microscopic grains that are individually even more dangerous than the storm as a whole. Naruto refines his chakra to such a point where it can't even block a drop of water anymore; it's just a thin efficient layer where no chakra is wasted unlike those other two."

The doll frowned, "Doesn't that mean he is defenceless? Not that I'm complaining but won't he die?"

The vampire shook her head, "The focus and control needed to do something like that actually intensifies his awareness of his surroundings by tenfold; to a point where he can probably feel each incoming grain individually. Those flares you keep seeing? They are chakra spikes that are literally deflecting each grain of sand."

Evangeline nodded approvingly, "I never thought I'd see him doing something so elegant, I thought all he knew was how to use brute force. It's a useful principle. Abandoning all defence for speed and attack. True, your enemies can't hurt you if they can't **HIT** you and at the same time using each bit of your resources for maximum impact but there are weaknesses to this kind of styles."

"Like?" her doll inquired.

"For one, if he keeps this up, he'll be able to deflect most attacks, but stronger, higher level ones will almost always get through. The deflecting effect will also especially be weak when it comes to melee attacks. By then his lack of defence will probably come back to bite him in his ass. Secondly, this style is suitable for the small agility types with smaller reserves; he doesn't really have that problem so I'm not entirely sure why he is doing this other than practicing control."

"Sounds pretty complicated, you wanted those two to learn that technique? They're pretty small and fast" Chachazero added thoughtfully.

"It would help but definitely not." The vampire replied without hesitation, "It's not suitable for either one of their fighting styles."

The doll tilted her head in confusion, "Huh? Then why send them in there?"

Evangeline smiled cheerfully, "I'll be satisfied as long as they learn how to control their magic output and adding the basic tenets of the style will help them tremendously."

"Right... that and you wanted to see them suffer while you bunked them off on Naruto because you were lazy." The doll muttered under its breath.

"That too." She admitted with an evil smile.

******Broken Faith******

A certain blonde sighed as he leaned back into the tub after a gruelling day of training before glancing around and sweat dropping. Calling this swimming pool sized hot spring a tub was a downright understatement. Not that he expected any less from someone as ostentatious and flashy as his little sister despite her arguments otherwise.

A small splash alerted the shinobi to the fact that another person had just stepped into the pool and he strained his eyes through the rising steam to see who it was.

"It's slippery here, becareful Akako."

"Hai mama."

Oh so it was just Chachamaru.

Two silhouttes, one tall and slender and the other small and cute, slowly appeared in the steam as they unintentionally approached his end of the pool, unaware that it was already occupied.

"Kyaah!"

Naruto blinked rapidly before jumping up in concern, "What's wrong Chachamaru? Akako?"

"Mama?"

The gynoid had collapsed to her knees in the water, desperately tugging her towel tightly around her.

"Naruto! Don't look at me!"

Her sudden yell reverberated in the bathing chamber loudly.

Huh?

Akako's ruby eyes shone with a confused glint as they swivelled between her Papa and Mama.

This was the first time he had seen Chachamaru being so... shy about her body; she had never been one to be bothered about a simple concept like nudity before.

"Chachamaru?" he asked with concern tinting his question, "Are you alright?"

"Don't look!"

Now he was really concerned, "Ok, ok, I'm turning around, relax. Akako, wanna come over here?" As he did what he said, the gynoid slowly peeked through her towel before quickly wading to the side of the pool where she had left her bath robe.

**Play Sousei no Aquarion OST – Pride – Nageki no Tabi**

Hesitantly the gynoid slowly waded back into the pool, "Do-don't look alright?"

Naruto chuckled in response, "Yes dear," the sound of mirth in his voice was replaced by concern,"Is there something wrong?"

_**Kokoro no me ni mieta no wa wasurerareta sekai no hate **__**  
**__**Yami no michi de kiita no wa watashi dake wo yobu koe**_

_**Nageki no tabi ga toki wo koete hajimaru nara **__**  
**__**Kono inochi made mo takaku takaku kakageyou**_

Chachamaru pulled Akako onto her lap and began to silently wash the girl's hair, a few moments passed before she muttered lowly, "I do not understand how a human can bear to keep living with all this uncertainty and fear. It's so... disgusting."

"Huh? Did you say something?"

Shaking her head slowly, the gynoid leaned back onto Naruto's broad back causing the blonde to shiver slightly as her hair brushed his skin, there was nothing intentionally sensuous in her innocent actions but it still excited him.

He was a man after all.

"Mmm... I was just thinking about Ayaka and Konoka." The gynoid stated blandly.

"...I'm sorry about Ayaka. I should have asked before I did something so impulsive. I keep talking about respecting women but I end up doing something like this. Are you angry?"

He could feel the head leaning on his shoulder shake slightly, "That's not it... I'm not angry about that but..."

_**Ai no na no moto ni **__**  
**__**Ai dake wo tayori ni**_

_**Iza yukan senjou e **__**  
**__**Kiseki no hana sakasu tame**_

The shinobi winced at the last word, in his experience, nothing good ever came from the word _but._

Chachamaru steeled herself and spoke quietly as she started rinsing the shampoo off Akako's silky hair, "That day after the Mahora Tournament was over, Chisame and I had an interesting conversation. I am still a bit conflicted about a few things that she pointed out..."

Silence descended as Chachamaru trailed off uncertainly. Back to back, with a green haired head on his shoulders, the two of them silently watched Akako splash around in the steaming water.

_**Kagiri aru inochi to shitte ite daremo ga **__**  
**__**Kagiri nai yume wo miru**_

_**Hito wa yasashiki kemono nan da ne **__**  
**__**Namida wa kitto kanashimi no monoiwanu kotoba dakara **__**  
**__**Kimi no hoho wo ikuoku no kagayaki ga nurasu darou**_

Blue eyes blinked as synthetic fingers unsurely wound around his own underwater. He gripped them tightly and squeezed in reassurance. The gynoid seemed to take courage in his little action and continued speaking again, "I am unsure of what I want. In front of me are two paths. The first is where we continue on as if nothing has happened and I have to watch you find warmth in solace in another's arms. Things that I cannot provide you naturally. Children, warmth..."

Naruto immediately moved to say something but her fingers squeezed tightly, causing him to fall silent, "On the other hand, I can ask you to remain loyal to me and only me. I even talked to Hak- I meant Mother about this. Maybe she will think of something in the future... but for now... I admit I cannot fulfil the role of a proper wife and mother. As a gynoid I cannot properly care for Akako's every need."

_**Kibou wa zetsubou wo shiru mono no mune ni koso waku **__**  
**__**Karenai izumi no you ni towa ni umaretsu'zukeru**_

_**Ai dake ga kikoeru ai dake ga michibiku **__**  
**__**Owari naki samayoi ni **__**  
**__**Hitosuji no hi tomosu tame **_

Her weight shifted slightly so that they were sitting side by side, fingers intertwined between them as she held one closed fist to her chest, "Is this what it means be jealous? To selfishly want you and Akako for myself alone? Even when I cannot be the best mother figure I can be for her."

"It's so... ugly..." she whispered lowly.

"It isn't selfish at all... I'm the one at fault here. For not being able to make up my mind, for not being loyal." Naruto softly replied.

_**Yuuki to wa kokoro no honoo da to ki ga tsuku **__**  
**__**Ibara no tsu'zuku michi wo **__**  
**__**Hokori to tomo ni moetsukiru made**_

_**Inori yo todoke yo chiisaki kimi no mimune ni **__**  
**__**Ten kara sazukaru kokoro wa tada ai no tame...**_

Chachamaru chuckled softly, "Those words are something I have come to expect of you. Always watching out for those precious to you even if you say that you can't be bothered. In the end, it seems that we are both lacking isn't it? I alone am unable to satisfy you and Akako in all the ways that matter and despite how hard you try; loving a machine is not easy. Especially not one whose loyalties lie elsewhere."

The gynoid paused and gave a self mocking smile, "It appears that the easiest and most logical solution would be for both of us to... how do humans put it? Break up?"

"NO! I.. I can't do that. I just can't... We have Akako. That... that is enough-!" Chachamaru cut him off with a small teasing smile and bashful expression, rendering the battle worn shinobi speechless due to her beauty and the fact that she rarely if ever allowed such emotions on her face. It just made the way she looked even more exquisite.

Then she continued as if she hadn't just completely charmed Naruto, "Neither do I. But at the same time I cannot bring myself selfishly ask you to look at me and only me. I know you Naruto. I know how much you want a family no matter how you deny it. I... I love you too much to deny you that happiness. And even if you can force yourself to look at me and me alone, others will be hurt. You can ignore it but I know you hate hurting those close to you especially if it would mean breaking your promise to them."

Chachamaru looked up and smiled gracefully at the blonde, "And breaking a promise is something a Namikaze will never do isn't it?"

_**Ai wo daite **__**  
**__**Iza yukan senjou e **__**  
**__**Kiseki no hana sakasu tame**_

_**Ai dake ga kikoeru, ai dake ga michibiku **__**  
**__**Owari naki samayoi ni **__**  
**__**Hitosuji no hi tomosu tame**_

She looked down at herself, "This is... interesting. I don't feel... ugly anymore... How weird."

Speechless at her frank confession and selfless conclusion, Naruto could only stare at the gynoid who was poking her chest with an intrigued expression on her face.

"Mama! Papa!" Akako called out as she waded over to them with a bright smile, "Come play!"

Tugging at their intertwined hands, the little fox girl pulled them deeper into the pool when her father's strong arms encircled her small body and lifted her up. Before she knew it, she had been pulled into a tight hug along with her mother, looking curiously at the blonde who had his face buried in her mother's hair, Akako spoke, "Papa? What's wrong?"

_**Ai no na no moto ni ai dake wo tayori ni **__**  
**__**Tamashii no meizuru mama ni **__**  
**__**Hokori to tomo ni moetsukiru made**_

_**Tamashii no meizuru mama ni hokori to tomo ni moetsukiru made**_.

Naruto lifted his face, showing a lopsided smile and watery eyes, "it's nothing. I'm just happy to have you and Mama here with me."

Akako looked at him as if he was stupid before giggling at his funny pout, "Papa is dumb. Of course we're here. Papa, Mama and Akako are family." She said as if it was a foregone conclusion.

"Yeah, we're family. I'll always love you and Mama. We'll always be together alright?"

Chachamaru simply smiled at the two of them.

_**I will do what my soul wants even if I am turned to dust and burned to ash because of my pride.**_

******Broken Faith******

"_How are you Nekane-onee chan? It's been half a year since I came here to teach in Japan already. This time I included photographs with the letter as well."_ The miniature hologram of Negi smiled cheerfully up at a beautiful blonde woman.

The woman smiled affectionately and called out to a smaller red headed girl, "Anya! Come see! Negi sent us some photos!"

"_Right now, we're facing final exams but once that's done it'll be summer holidays. Ah! Don't worry, I'm not sure when, but I'll definitely come to visit you, Nekane-onee chan! I also have someone important I want to introduce to you! He just joined our family recently!"_

"Arara? **He?** I wonder who Negi is talking about, and what he means by joined our family?"

Beside her the smaller girl shuffled through all the pictures included with the letter, "Geh, they're all girls!"

"Hmm? Well, it's a girls' school isn't it? Wait." She picked up a picture Anya had missed, "Fufufu, I wonder where Negi picked him up."

"Him?"

"There's a blonde man in this class picture." Nekane pointed at the blonde man in the picture taken in Nagi Springfield's home in Kyoto.

"Huh..." Anya frowned, "He looks familiar for some reason."

"Ara? Weren't you just crushing on Negi? Now you are crushing on this man? Huhuhu... Negi will cry because you are so unfaithful you know."

"I AM NOT CRUSHING ON ANYBODY, LEAST OF ALL THAT IDIOT NEGI!"

Nekane completely ignored the ongoing rant and sighed happily, "Anya is always so cute when she's riled up."

******Broken Faith******

"Yo, Kichi."

The big and tough man wearing a blue and orange haori blinked and looked up from his computer screen where stock prices were displayed to see the seat in front of his desk which had been previously empty was suddenly filled by a cheerful blonde that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Naruto?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Sup?"

"Sup? Sup? You don't get to appear all of a sudden in my office and just go _sup_! I'll get a goddamn heart attack and I want to live to see 500 at least!"

The blonde rolled his eyes, "You don't see me for three hundred years and suddenly you're so dramatic just because I visit you?"

The bigger man settled back into his chair and grunted, "I blame my wife."

"Where is Kinyo anyway?"

"Back in Myobokuzan, she's pregnant and I didn't want to risk her using that transforming seal you gave us while she's pregnant."

"Again?" Naruto smiled mischievously, "I don't think your dad got your mom pregnant as often as you do with Kinyo. What is this? Your eighth kid?"

Kichi coughed uncomfortably, "Seventh... and she ah, looked very attractive as a human and that's all I'm saying you perv, you sure writing those trashy novels aren't getting to your head?"

"From the looks of your wife, I'd say the one who's more influenced is you," Naruto replied impudently. The two men stared at each other challengingly before breaking out in laughter. They laughed for a while before Naruto pulled out a few documents and set them neatly on the desk, "Those are the papers you'll need. How is everything?"

"Good, 84% of all yakuza holdings in Japan are now either under our control or they owe us something big, the others that remain will fall. If they continue to refuse to trade under our terms, we'll start phase two and slowly start isolating them bit by bit. The new company is ready to be set up; we only needed your papers so that we could legally put it under your name. Your other requests weren't as easy though."

"Oh?" one eyebrow rose, "What's the problem?"

The toad boss shrugged and leaned back into his comfortable seat, "First of all, your target isn't stupid. He keeps his secrets well, though I expected as much. Someone like him doesn't get to be at the top of the world without being as slippery as old Manda was in his prime. Much of what we know about the guy's under-the-table dealings with magic won't hold up in a normal court and in the magic World, they are unethical but not exactly illegal. At best we'd tarnish his shiny public image but not much else. That might drop his total value but not much else."

The toad boss scratched his chin thoughtfully with one huge finger, "At this rate, the only quickest possible way to control him would be if you had enough money to legally buy a controlling interest in his company out from under him."

"How much?"

"30 billion Euros, give or take."

Naruto choked on his spit and the toad boss laughed, "I said the quickest way. There are other ways and I'm working on them. The start up capital you gave us is more than enough so don't worry, we're making a lot of money. Like I said earlier, people like him don't get to the top of the world without being slippery, but they don't get there by being as clean as a whistle either."

Naruto nodded understandingly, "What about my second request?"

"Ngh, not easy. Finding a valid and reliable contact in the Magical World is manageable but a little huffy. Getting a proper information network up and running on the other hand is like dragging teeth from old lady Shima. And she had only two." Kichi laughed boisterously at the old memory, "Nonetheless, its slow going but it's working. Some of them are curious about the new magically aware company and the fact that we specialize in backdoor smuggling has them really interested but too apprehensive about us being based in the Old World to actively do anything about it yet. Would you believe a can of **Coke**, of all things, costs 30 gold Drachma there? It's like a damned drug to some of them over there."

Naruto laughed at the big man's exaggerated gestures before sobering up again, "Just don't overextend yourself old man, you sure you can keep up with all these requests? Do you need any extra help? Do I need to revise the business plans I wrote up for you?"

The big man snorted, "Old man your ass. I'm still young damn it. No need to worry, your plans are a little aggressive but we'll do fine. Besides, I enjoy a good challenge, beating things with a huge ass sword just doesn't seem that fun anymore when you're looking at things from the wrong side of three hundred years o-."

"Papa?" a small voice squeaked from behind the door stopped Kichi's words dead in his mouth.

Kichi quirked one bushy eyebrow at the smiling blonde, _'Papa? Is there something I should know?' _he mouthed silently at Naruto.

The blonde winked, stood up and walked over to the door before opening it. The large scarred man could hear the blonde cooing to somebody before he led the person into the office by her tiny hand. His eyebrows rose even higher and he was rendered speechless at the small red haired child dressed in a baby blue yukata, "Naruto...? Was there something you didn't mention the last time we met? Like a wife and a kid?" he rumbled threateningly at the blonde man.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the larger man's theatricality, "Settle down you big idiot, you're scaring Akako." The red haired girl had timidly hid behind Naruto's leg when she heard the loud voice.

"Akako, huh?"

The big man chuckled, "Suits her. She's tiny, she's red and if she grows up properly, she'll be a downright firework especially considering which idiot her dad is." Kichi got up from his chair and walked over to Naruto before kneeling down in front of the tiny girl, "Hey." His rumbling voice softened by a few decibels, "I'm sorry I was so loud, but your Papa is a bit slow in the head so I need to be loud to get him to understand sometimes."

Wide ruby eyes timidly peeked out from behind Naruto's knee and nodded slightly while Naruto pouted at being called slow. The fact that his daughter seemed to agree wasn't helping either.

"Akako, this is Kichi-jii san, his ah..." Naruto coughed embarrassedly, "Someone who is like a brother to me."

"Kichi-jii chan? Papa's brother?" Akako quoted cutely while the towering man simply grinned at the blonde's embarrassment. Naruto simply averted his eyes from Kichi and shrugged slightly with a pink tint on his cheeks as if to say _'It can be helped, we kinda DID grow up together after all.'_

Kichi smiled softly at Akako before holding out something to her.

The eyes poked out further as the small girl moved towards the tantalising gift, a fistful of lollipops, and considering the size of Kichi's fists, that was a lot of lollipops. Her nose twitched cutely as the sweets distracted her, causing two cute kitsune ears to plop out the top of her head, twitching excitedly at the thought that huge palm full of sweets. A red bushy tail appeared behind her, waving slowly from side to side as she eyed the offered sweets intensely the way a predator eyed its prey.

That caused the big man to stare in shock, but rather than voicing his shock, he all he did was make eye contact with Naruto.

A silent conversation passed between the two fathers.

'_Akane?'_

Naruto shook his head and mouthed, _'Adopted.'_

Kichi nodded understandingly before a tugging at Naruto's pants caused the blonde to break eye contact and look down.

Akako looked up at her father unsurely, her fluffy pointed ears and tail wilting shyly.

Naruto simply smiled and nodded.

The ears stood back up at attention and flicked happily as her tail wagged even faster.

Akako dashed out from behind Naruto, grabbed two tiny fistfuls of the offered sweets before bowing in thanks, her ears flicking happily. "Thanks Kichi-jii chan!" She smiled brightly and dashed back behind Naruto's knees where the rustling of sweet wrappers could be heard.

"Cute kid."

"Yeah."

Kichi recognized the soft smile on Naruto's face as one he himself wore every time he played with his own daughters.

"Heh, looks like you got into this father business pretty well." He paused in thought and winced, "Well better than Tatsu did anyway. The idiot still doesn't know how to hold his kid properly without blubbering like an overgrown 5 year old with a sugar rush."

"Right... where is Tatsu anyway?"

Kichi looked at the clock on his desk, "Around this time, he's usually done with the accounts so he should be out in the courtyard playing with the kids, why don't you and Akako-chan go join them? The kids miss their uncle 'Ruto and they'll love a new friend. The men wouldn't mind a spar or two either. Keep morale high and all that stuff. Oh and stay the **bleep** away from the South Building."

"Why?"

"That's Riki's place, and ever since you gave him that female transforming seal, he's been seducing everything that moves and has an extra limb between their legs and I don't want my so-called** niece **going anywhere **near **Riki if I can help it."

"Yeah... that was something I was going to do even if you didn't say so," Naruto shuddered at the unneeded mental imagery and made a mental reminder to stay far, **faaar** away from the rather flamboyant toad before giving the toad boss a thumbs up and leading a happily occupied Akako out of the office.

"Oh wait I forgot. Naruto! Wait!" Kichi hollered out.

The blonde's face poked back in at the door with a curious expression, "What is it?"

The toad boss rummaged in his desk drawer for a moment before letting a small sound of triumph when he found what he was looking for before he straightened up and tossed that something at the blonde.

Naruto's eyebrow rose as he smoothly caught a thick cylindrical package about as long as his forearm, "What's this?"

"Did you tell anyone that the people here are affiliated with you?"

"Noo...?" Naruto drawled out questioningly.

"Well then I don't know either. That package came in yesterday and for some reason it was addressed to you."

Naruto quirked an interested eyebrow as he slowly unravelled the package.

Inside was a scroll.

Kichi waited impatiently as he watched the blonde carefully unfurled the scroll, "So? What is it?"

The corner of Naruto lips rose in an amused smirk as he inspected the contents of the scroll, "Heh... It's sort of a wedding present. This came in yesterday? What time?"

"What! Wedding present? What wedding?"

Naruto waved his question off, "It was just a figure of speech, when exactly did this arrive?" he reiterated his question.

"Yesterday, about five in the evening by standard mail. Now who is it from?" the frustrated toad boss nearly yelled at the eccentric blonde.

"From a rather naughty relative; I should have known she would've figured this out." He smiled slightly, 5pm Kyoto time yesterday translated to the exact moment he told Chachamaru that he loved her in Evangeline's resort.

"You're weird."

"I know," He shook his head and sighed in an exasperated manner reminiscent to frustrated parents all over the world, "And for some reason, my children and grandchildren don't seem to be any better either." He muttered mournfully.

Kichi looked at him weirdly, "I don't care what you do about your own kids, just don't infect **my** kids with your idiot bug."

"You're a true friend, Kichi." Naruto replied drily.

"Yeah I know, aren't I a great person?"

"Che, whatever." Naruto started walking to the door.

"Naruto!"

The blonde stopped in his footsteps, "What is it this time?"

A solemn expression played on the toad boss's face, "Be careful. The Great Toad Sage has been having nightmares again and I've been having a bad feeling lately." Kichi's voice rumbled lowly.

A small smile flitted on the corner of the blonde's lips and he waved over his shoulder, "Bad feeling? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm not going to get scared every time that senile geezer wets his bed at night. See ya old man."

"Go bang yourself with a cactus."

******Broken Faith******

**Play Hear our Prayer – Yuki Kajiura**

"Nii-san, enough! Let's rest!"

The blonde chuckled in response, "Alright, alright, I suppose training for 8 hours was pushing it."

"Mouu... Nii-san, you keep training here but what about class? What if you fail?"

The blonde cracked a mischevious grin, "You really think I could fail something like that."

"You got negative 5% on your last test." Negi deadpanned at the taller male, "Negative! How the heck did you even get Negative?"

"I was sick!" the blonde protested.

"You ate too much ice cream! That does NOT count as sick." Negi pointed out smugly.

Two snow balls hit the both of them square on the face from where Albiero and Evangeline were having tea, "Will the two of you stop bickering? Kami, if I didn't know any better you two act like real brothers."

"Sorry!" the two of them echoed simultaneously at the Dark Mage sheepishly. Negi leaned back on a pillar. The two of them were training inside Evangeline's resort again, it was the day before exams but Naruto-nii san had been restless especially since everybody else was on the edge of panic and frantically studying, leaving no one else to accompany the blonde.

Which was why he pestered Negi.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the smaller boy beside him as he let out a long and depressed sigh, "What's up? You sound like an old man sighing like that."

"Nothing.. It's just..."

"Just what?"

"Do you think I'll ever get as strong as you or KuNel-san or Master? I mean I know I'm stronger than I was 3 months ago, but there has to be a faster way."

Naruto gazed over to where KuNel and Evangeline were talking, or to be more accurate, Al was harassing Evangeline again. He stood up and waved at Negi to follow him to the edge of the resort overlooking the artificial beach and ocean. He didn't want Evangeline and Al to overhear him.

The two of them sat under a palm, Negi messing around with a crab while Naruto contemplated what he wanted to say.

"You remember what Wilhelm said to you that day? About how darkness makes you stronger? Faster than just training hard?"

Negi's eyes darkened at the memory, "Ye..yeah. Grudge, hate, jealousy, envy. They made you stronger right? You wanted revenge for Akane-nee chan."

Naruto smiled briefly at how Negi had called Akane despite never even meeting her before, and yet he still used** keigo** with the rest of 3-A, "He was right."

"But you said it wasn't the legendary way right? That doing something like that would weaken you."

The blonde nodded with a regretful smile, "I never told anyone this before but after Akane died, I really wanted Sasuke to pay. I wanted him to hurt, to feel the pain he caused me. I wanted it no matter what I had to do; I knew that I couldn't beat him the way I was. I prayed, I cursed. Kami, Demon, whatever, I didn't care where it came from as long as I got that power to make him pay."

Naruto snorted, "Once, a long time ago, a friend mocked me. He said that I who had never known love did not know how to miss it and because of that I would always be weaker than him. I was stupid and foolish then; I did not understand the meaning in his words and brushed them off like the idiot I was. Thinking that I could solve anything as long as I tried."

He leaned back and closed his eyes for one tired moment, "By the time I understood those words, it was already too late."

"I finally understood how Sasuke felt and the thought of killing him and Madara was all that kept me alive. Ending the war was just a small side bonus to killing them; everything else was second to that goal." The blonde shook his head tiredly, "I killed him. I enjoyed the look in his eyes as he lost all hope, as he begged for mercy. But the next night I couldn't sleep because I felt so dirty."

The blonde looked at his red headed counterpart, "You have to understand something Negi. I can't and won't say that succumbing to the darkness in your heart is evil; I don't have the right to. However even if it does give you great power, it slowly eats away inside you. First you just want that power to protect, but the darkness inside you slowly taints you without realizing it. Then slowly, bit by bit, you walk down dark path without realizing it. Using that anger inside you gives you power, but when you have that power..."

The older of the two trailed off and momentarily struggled to form the appropriate words to convey the depth of his conflict before giving up with a slight shrug, "I don't have the proper words to describe it... It's like you **somehow start looking at the world differently**." Negi could see something in his brother's eyes as the blonde tried to communicate his feelings to him with his clumsy words, "Do you remember what Kotarou did in Kyoto?"

Negi nodded, enthralled by what Naruto was saying, "He stopped you from rescuing Konoka. Just so he could have a great battle. He was literally an accomplice to attempted genocide. Had that Monkey Lady succeeded, it probably wouldn't have stopped at just '_attempted'._ You managed to stop him without any unnecessary damage yet had I been in your place, Kotarou would **not** have walked away with his life, I couldn't take the chance that he might revert and do something worse the next time. Because you spared him, you took the risk that I couldn't and he is now one of your most trusted friends and comrades. Something that could never have been achieved with my methods."

A self loathing smile appeared on scarred cheeks, "It would have been too easy. To just reach out, humiliate him, make him pay. You don't want him to die, that's too good for him. But then the day finally comes when your opponent pushes you too far and you reply in kind. You rationalize to yourself that it was justified because of the depravity your opponent did, maybe he committed genocide, maybe he hurt your wife or something." Negi watched as his adopted brother continued speaking with a glazed over expression and the too young teacher realized with a start that Naruto was talking about himself, his voice was low and a little bitter, "The beginning doesn't matter, it all boils down to the fact that once you've killed one person it's hard to stop. But it was alright, that person deserved it, you reassure yourself so that you can sleep. Then comes another idiot, and another, and another. Soon, anybody that makes you angry, you just kill them because it's the easiest way, because it's so satisfying to hurt him in revenge. You just get desensitized to the fact that you're doing exactly what you were fighting against in the first place because they deserved it didn't they? Don't get me wrong, I don't regret killing some people because some of them truly deserved it. What I DO regret is the fact that I allowed myself to become like them. To disregard the importance of life with such impunity. Like Kotarou, he was misguided and he was doing something that was truly despicable had it succeeded, but you gave him a second chance and was rewarded for it. Me..."

The blonde stared unseeingly at the callused palms of his hands, "Because you have the power to hurt them, before **long you don't even consider using any other way anymore**. They hurt you, so you hurt them back. It's as simple as that. Instead you convinced him, you persuaded him, you forgave him even though he was your enemy. Even though he hurt your friend, you didn't pay him back pain for pain. **That's the difference between the two of us**. You gambled and I didn't."

An unnoticeable shiver ran down Naruto's back, "Darkness is appealing, it gives you that extra boost, but you don't even notice as it slowly corrupts you. No... **not** you. **Me**. My heart and will wasn't strong enough to resist the taint."

A wry smile appeared on the blonde's whiskered cheek, "I'm not saying that Darkness is evil, everyone has their own motivations; everyone has darkness in their hearts. The difference is that you must **NOT **let it affect your judgement. You have to remember who you truly are. Properly gaining strength probably looks boring, **it is**. Unless someone is incredibly talented, it takes **years **to reach an appreciable level like Na... _Father _did by the straight and proper path."

Naruto grinned lightly at Negi, "You have that strength Negi. You just have to find it first."

Negi grinned back with confidence, "We're brothers aren't we?" the younger reminded the older, "If I can do it, you can do it too. I'm sure she believed in that as well, that's why Akane-nee chan spoke to you again."

"I'm trying. But it's a bit too easy to slip back into my old mindset."

"Then as family, I'll be the one to stop you from falling back there again."

Naruto felt a warm grin spread on his lips at the conviction in Negi's declaration before snorting and ruffling his hair affectionately, "Talk is cheap. Let's see you beat me in a practice match first before you try anything like that eh, squirt?"

"Nii-san! Don't call me that!" Negi pouted as he tried to get out from under Naruto's hand.

The blonde chuckled in response before gasping, "Gah, it's almost evening, I've got to go get Akako from the day care and do some groceries. I promised Chachamaru I'd cook my special rabbit stew and hamburger steak for her and Akako tonight."

"You can cook steak?" Negi muttered in awe.

"Err... well yeah?"

"Can we eat with you tonight?" Negi literally dropped to his knees and pleaded desperately.

One blonde eyebrow quirked upwards, "Why do you sound like you haven't a good meal in a long time?"

Negi laughed sheepishly and averted his eyes, "Ah... Nekane-nee chan didn't get around to teaching me how to cook before I came here, Konoka-san can cook but only vegetarian Japanese dishes since she was raised in a Shinto shrine. I've been feeling a little home sick since I haven't had any Western meals ever since I came here," here Negi winced, "The last time we persuaded Asuna to cook, she somehow managed to break all our pots and that was before she set the kitchen on fire."

"I was too scared to ask exactly her why she was carrying around raw petroleum...or how she managed to burn metal with an electric stove..." Negi mourned dejectedly on the ground.

Naruto chuckled at that little tid bit before ruffling the boy's hair again, "Yeah sure. Come over around 7 p.m. I'll let Chachamaru know we have guests. Akako misses you as well Negi-jii chan." Naruto teased him as he smoothly stood up and brushed the sand off the seat of his pants before waving goodbye to Negi and briskly walking away.

******Broken Faith******

Sapphire eyes flicked around lazily, browsing the goods on sale in the supermarket's food section as Naruto strolled through the aisles with a small red haired girl perched on his shoulders, legs swinging happily.

Suddenly the grip on his hair tightened as Akako squealed happily, "Papa! Sweets!"

Grinning slightly, one slender finger moved up to poke Akako's tummy, causing the girl to giggle, "No sweets. You still have a lot from Kichi-jii san don't you? Besides Mama will get angry with me if I let you eat too many sweets."

"Muuu..." Akako pouted and tugged at his hair with her tiny fists to show him her displeasure.

"Is your Papa bullying you, Akako?"

"Eh?" The father and daughter couple made similar sounds of surprise as they turned around to face the speaker.

"Taka... something?"

Her eyebrow twitched violently. "Takane! At least remember get name right!" The blonde girl who was surprisingly dressed in casual clothes instead of the black S&M style armoured dress he had seen her in. A casual denim jacket, a cotton pink blouse and a white lacy summer skirt that fluttered as the glaring girl stalked towards him.

Glaring at him one last time, her expression softened drastically as she reached up on her tip toes, to pet Akako's hair with a gentle smile, causing the precocious child to lose her pout now that she had found someone sympathetic to her cause. The red haired girl clambered down Naruto and enthusiastically jumped in to Takane's arms before nodding furiously, "Papa won't let me have sweets! Papa meanie!"

Naruto sweat dropped at his daughter's enthusiastic words and exaggerated gestures that she used to punctuate how mean he was being to her.

Sensing that her subterfuge wasn't working on her father, Akako turned to pout at Takane, "Taka-nee chan buy sweets? Pwease?"

Wilting under the full force of Akako's trembling lips and big watery ruby eyes, Takane was nearly about to give in and rush to get some sweets when an exasperated Naruto lifted a pouting Akako up by the collar, "Akako, you still have a lot of sweets at home." He admonished her gently. Unseen to the other two, Takane breathed a comical sigh of relief at being freed from Akako's weapon's grade puppy eye pout.

"Muu..." watery tears started to fill her ruby eyes again.

"Geh... Ok, ok, you win." Akako smiled victoriously and Naruto sighed at being completely outfoxed, "I'll buy you some sweets. But you can't have them until after dinner. Alright?"

Not exactly liking the conditions her father had imposed on **her **sweets but not really seeing any other option the little fox girl beamed a winning smile at her father and clambered back up to her spot on his shoulders. Mentally Naruto made a reminder to avoid the sweets section whenever Akako was with him, he turned to see Takane watching the two of them with another weird expression on her face similar to the one she had the last time Naruto had met her. A mix between gentleness and conflict.

"I-is something wrong, Taka-something-san?"

"Kuu... It's Takane! Ta- Ka- Ne! It's not that hard to remember right?" the blonde girl ranted loudly.

"Yeah, whatever. You doing groceries as well? If so want to join me?"

Although her eyebrows were twitching angrily at being brushed off so easily, the blonde girl managed to compose herself and haughtily answered the blonde's question, "I suppose I will. Someone like you is only good for carrying my baggage anyway."

"Uh huh, where's your partner? The small orange haired girl that's always with you."

This time her eyebrows scrunched in confusion as they started walking again, "Small? You mean Mei? She's not that small, she just... hasn't hit her growth yet." Takane's voice lowered, "Mei's not feeling well. She probably got sick after that dog boy threw her into the lake so I wanted to buy something nice and make dinner for her."

Naruto glanced down at the contents of her basket and blinked, "I really hate to have to ask this but what exactly are you planning to cook with 5 litres of energy drinks and two bags of salt?"

"Huh? Isn't it obvious? She's feeling ill isn't she? So I just need to give her more energy fight off the virus and it's scientifically proven that eating more salt is good for the sick." Takane stated in a matter of fact manner. Naruto suddenly had the image of the blonde girl pouring bags of salt and bottles of energy drinks down the smaller girl's throat with the help of a funnel.

Uwaah... Forget fighting off the virus, she probably wouldn't survive the night. Period.

"This might seem like a stupid question, but do the two of you by any chance happen to stay together?"

Takane nodded warily, "Usually the one that prepares your meals... is her isn't it?"

This time the girl blinked in surprise, "How did you know?"

Pushing down the urge to face palm Naruto replied drily, "Call it survival instinct. Now go put those back."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I'm cooking for you. I'd really rather not see your face in the news tomorrow for third degree manslaughter."

"Huh? I refuse! I can cook congee perfectly on my own... I **HAVE** to cook this for her."

"Energy drink flavoured congee?"

"What's wrong with that? There's no point in making different dishes when you can mix everything and get all the nutrients in one dish isn't it?"

Theoretically sound. Practically dumb.

"...What you consider as cooking sucks so much that she'll probably die if you feed it to her." Naruto replied flatly.

"..."

Naruto kept on walking, busy looking at the items on the shelves but it didn't take long for him to realize that his blonde companion was no longer walking beside him.

The shinobi spun around to look for her, "Taka-something san?" Retracing his steps down the aisle it didn't take him long to find the person he was looking for. The formerly elegant, dignified and haughty blonde was huddled in a corner with a gloomy aura and a dark cloud of despair hovering over her head while mumbling something over and over again,

"I know I'm not that good at cooking bu-but to say it so bluntly... it's not that bad right? Right!" she yelled at the wall in despair.

Akako giggled as she poked the older girl, "Taka-nee chan is so funny!"

Naruto rubbed his temples and ignored the slight stab of guilt, he was usually more tactful when it came to people he actually cared for but everybody else got the _'blunt as a hammer'_ version. Mostly since he didn't care whether he hurt their feelings or not, plus it saved time.

Stepping over to the despairing girl he awkwardly petted her hair, "It's alright I guess. No one's perfect, so I guess this is your weakness. I-if you want to do it so much, I can teach you how to cook?" he half asked and half stated.

Takane peeked at him from underneath yellow bangs and Naruto absently noted that her eyes were a beautiful shade of amber, "Really?"

"Err... yeah. Let's go get everything we need then I'll come over later. Alright?"

******Broken Faith******

**Play Ayumi Hamasaki - Heaven**

*Cough*

Sapphire eyes slowly lifted from the cup of tea held in a pair of slender yet male hands and one eyebrow quirked in amusement, "Yes?"

"I... I uh... I just wanted to thank you alright?" the blonde girl grounded out.

"Fooor?" was the drawled response.

Her shoulders sagged in depression, "Alright, alright, I know can't cook. I just wanted to thank you for coming around and teaching me how to cook congee for Mei." The two of them shifted their vision towards where they could see a flushed Mei peacefully sleeping in her bunk bed. Their room was actually rather small compared to Negi's or Ayaka's he noticed. The entire room consisted of two bunk beds, two desks, enough space in the middle for the average male to lie down on, a balcony, a small storeroom, and a small kitchenette. The two of them were currently sitting on the floor, around a Japanese tea table in the aforementioned empty space in the middle of the room.

Takane smiled softly as she set her chin down on her palm, "You probably realized it already, but I'm pretty much useless with household chores. It's only thanks to Mei that I managed to get along just fine so far. It may seem like I'm the one that leads but when it counts, I'm the one that's always depending on her. Sometimes I just want to do something special for everything she's done for me."

Ah, so that's why she was so insistent on cooking earlier.

Naruto shrugged, "She knows you care. There's no way she would have stayed with you otherwise."

Takane glared at him, "Are you implying I am ungrateful?"

Oops. There he went being unnecessarily blunt again, "Well, not exactly ungrateful. More along the lines of stupidly prideful."

Oops.

He was saved from a beating fuelled with feminine righteousness by the sudden and insistent knocking on the small dorm's door. Takane shot him a furious glance to show him that she hadn't forgotten his comment as she went to see who it was.

He could hear their voices since the door was pretty close but couldn't see who was at the door because the blonde girl was blocking his view.

"Oh. Takane-san. I'm sorry I came so late. Keitaro and I were already half way home when we got your call. Is Mei alright?"

"Yeah. She's resting properly now after she managed to eat some congee. Will you come in Naru-san?"

"O-oh, is that alright? Won't I uh..." A pretty red head peeked over Takane's shoulders, "be disturbing you and your boyfriend?"

"Wha- He is NOT my boyfriend. He is simply an acquaintance... that helped me cook congee..."

"Ah... it's like that..."

"...Why do you look so smug?"

"Ahaha, what are you talking about? I'm not implying anything at all, may I come in?"

Takane grudgingly nodded and led the pretty red headed woman in, "This is Naru Narusegawa-san, Mei's sister. This is my... acquaintance, Naruto Namikaze-san."

Huh? Wasn't her last name Sakura or something?

The red head in question smiled and bowed politely, "Konbanwa, I am her half sister. I'd like to thank you and Takane-san for doing so much for my little sister. I can help but worry for her, especially with her school being so far away from home."

Naruto waved it off with a relaxed smile, "I'm just glad to help."

'_If I didn't you wouldn't HAVE a sister by tomorrow morning.'_

"Ne-nee sama?" a weak voice came from one of the bunk beds as Mei stirred as soon as she heard her sister's voice.

"Mei-chan!" the slender red head immediately rushed over to the sick girl and started fussing over her.

Takane coughed uncomfortably and motioned Naruto to follow her onto the balcony with a forceful jerk of her head so that the two siblings could have some time together.

Sighing in resignation the blonde followed her, where the two of them quietly sipped their tea.

"Having a sibling that cares for you like that must be fun..."

Naruto glanced to his side to see the blonde wistfully watching the red head sisters, "You don't have any?"

Takane shook her head, "I'm an only child."

"Mmmm... Is that common in Magicus Mundus?"

The blonde girl immediately stared at him sharply, "How did you know?"

Naruto didn't hesitate to reply in a completely deadpan manner, "Your utter lack of common sense with anything that deals with modern or non magical concepts. Like how you tried to use the phone like a pactio. Or how you nearly sprayed yourself in the face with bug spray because you didn't know how to use it."

"... I really hate you."

Naruto hid a smirk by taking another sip of tea.

"Muu... It's true that I'm from Mundus Magicus, but things here are really hard to understand sometimes but I guess I'm just too used to using magic for everything back home." She admitted reluctantly.

Her expression softened again, "That's why I owe Mei a lot. The first day I transferred into St. Ursula, I was wondering around like a lost lamb. Mei was the one who found me and offered me, a total stranger, her hand in friendship. She even took the time to teach me how to fit in better."

A heavy hand landed a top her head, "Meh. She understands. Even if you are clumsy, I'm sure she understands."

The blonde girl looked down uncertainly, "How do you know? And even if you're right, what if it's not enough?"

"If someone as stupid as me can see how much you care for her, someone as smart as Mei definitely understands, wouldn't you say? So just keep showing her that you care the same way you've been doing it all this time and if she was worried about how much she could get from you, she wouldn't be Mei in the first place."

Takane's amber eyes landed on his sapphire ones for a long moment. Seeing the sincerity in his eyes, the blonde girl blushed and nodded slowly.

Silence fell between them after that awkwardly honest conversation and Naruto took refuge in observing the passerbys on the streets below as he nursed his cup of tea when he saw something interesting.

One eye narrowed at the scene below them as he addressed Takane, "Hmm... Can you handle everything from here? It seems like there is something I have to do."

Startled from her own contemplation, Takane only nodded, "Thanks. By the way, there's enough congee for tomorrow in the fridge. If you need more just call me, I left my number by the phone and I'm sure you at least know how to use it by now."

Takane flushed again at the reminder of her failure from this evening. After they came back from doing groceries and she had tried to use the phone by touching it to her forehead and then loudly complaining when it didn't work.

Waving back at her one last time, the blonde simply leapt off the balcony onto the nearest roof, following a black limousine that he had just seen a solemn looking Ayaka Yukihiro get into.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Genesis of Aquarion – AKINO featuring bless4 (English Version)**

"Fuuu... That was good! Not bad, even an idiot like you actually knows how to cook." A satisfied Asuna lazily leaned back into her seat to make space for her overstuffed stomach.

"And he didn't have to use super glue to fix his pots either." Negi mumbled quietly under his breath. Naruto discretely shot him a thumbs up while Konoka chuckled daintily.

Setsuna nodded in approval, signalling appreciation for the good food, "It's true. Although I grew up in a shrine where the food was inevitably prepared extremely well, your efforts have easily surpassed even theirs, Naruto-dono."

Chachamaru quietly sipped some tea from her spot beside Naruto while one hand slowly stroked Akako's rust red hair, the little fox girl was on her lap, greedily gobbling up a plate of melon pudding that the nice yellow haired onee-chan had convinced her father to buy for her. All of them were sitting around the table having just enjoyed Naruto's cooking, "Meh. It was alright, I don't usually get to cook anything as elaborate as this so I was a little out of practice. Most of the time, I don't really pay attention to what I eat. As long as it was fast and edible I didn't care."

Konoka who was sitting on Naruto's other side subtly leaned towards him, "Why? If it were me I would have wanted to show off that to everyone that I can do something like this. Father would have loved your lotus root soup." The princess's finger lazily traced a circle on the back of his palm under the table.

Naruto lifted Akako from Chachamaru's lap, the little girl had just finished her pudding and was starting to doze off while the adults chatted about adult things, and settled her down on his lap. When he started rubbing her tummy gently, the girl started to purr softly, eliciting affectionate smiles from everyone at the table, "When I was younger I didn't really have any friends to cook for. Half the time no one sold me any proper ingredients to cook with either. Plus it wasn't often but I had to gobble my food down just in case someone decided they had to deprive the demon of its food." Thunderous expressions appeared on everyone's faces as they glanced amongst each other, noticing their expressions

Naruto smiled softly in appreciation for their anger on his behalf, "Maa, maa, It's alright. It was a long time ago, besides there's no reason for me to bear a grudge over something petty like this, especially not for so long. Besides that wasn't always the reason. As I got older, I simply didn't have the time to sit around for a slow and relaxing dinner. I was too busy training and after that, there was a war."

Asuna reached over to stroke Akako's soft hair, causing the purrs to get even louder. Grinning, Naruto offered the small bundle to the girl with bells in her hair.

"Re-really? I can hold her?" Baka Red of 3-A looked rather surprised at the offer, "I don't see why not as long as Akako doesn't mind. Do you?"

The small girl who was nuzzling Asuna's outstretched palm shook her head vigorously before going back to more important matters, namely enjoyed the head scratching.

"I have some desert in the kitchen, you can have her while I go get it."

Wide eyed, Asuna gently cradled Akako who was starting to look rather heavy lidded from all the petting. Asuna had a strangely soft expression on her face as she cuddled the younger girl.

As Naruto stood up and began piling up the empty plates, Negi volunteered to help while the girls moved to a more casual setting as the men prepared desert.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Negi hummed happily as he helped his older brother stack the dirty dishes into the dish washer, causing said older brother to quirk an amused smile at the younger boy, "What's got you so happy?"

Negi sighed happily, "A good filling meal of western steak after a hard days worth of training and work. Everyone was sitting around the table like a real family as we ate and talked together." He sighed happily, "Life is good." Negi started humming dreamily again while Naruto blinked, "I thought you ate with Nekane-san all the time?"

The red haired boy tilted his head in thought and his happy mood disappeared slightly, "When we were younger we ate together all the time at the table. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice but... there wasn't a sense of family when it was just the two of us I guess. After that, we were both too busy studying to worry about something like that..."

Naruto blinked again, feeling slightly guilty that he hadn't been spending as much time with Negi outside of battle as he should have been, "Tell you what. When we go meet her, I'll cook dinner again. Deal? Next time, everybody will be there, even your Nekane-nee san. Then you can show her how many friends you've made, and we can all have a real family dinner where no one is left out." Naruto grinned at Negi with a wide grin and a thumbs up.

For a split second, when Naruto had said those words with a stupid grin on his face, Negi thought he had seen Naruto's face being overlapped by the shadow of another familiar wide grin. The same grin on his father's face as he confidently declared everyone there as family at the end of the Mahora Tournament.

Negi stared at the blonde who was now kneeling down in front of the fridge and gingerly pulling out the iced cake a clone had made earlier.

Just as the blonde straightened up again, he always jumped out of his skin as a small meteor crashed into his side, "Gyaaha! The cake Negi, the cake!" seeing that the weight stuck to his side wasn't responding, Naruto desperately sealessly formed a clone which carefully took the cake from the original. Breathing a sigh of relief that his hard work and sweat was safe, Naruto was about to scold Negi for nearly knocking him down when he realized the weight stuck to his side was quietly crying into his trousers.

"Negi?" the quiet question was filled with concern for the younger boy. Negi generally wasn't one to cry, especially not in front of people where he felt he had to show his strong face so to speak, "What's wrong?"

Negi's face was buried into his side but he still managed to shake his head slightly, "No-nothing's wrong." came the muffled reply.

"I'm so happy Nii-san. I've... always wanted a big family but it's always seemed like such a faraway, impossible dream. But when you said we would have a real family dinner..." the boy felt fresh tears begin to flood his eye lids again.

Naruto scratched his head embarrassedly and silently motioned the clone to bring the cake out first while he comforted Negi while he slung one arm around Negi's shoulder.

He didn't say anything, simply allowing Negi to unburden all his tears. Negi didn't need advice, he simply needed someone to lean on for just a moment before forging forwards once more.

"Papa? Negi-jii chan?"

Naruto looked up to see one ruby eye peeking through the kitchen door, grinning he motioned his daughter to come over. Akako curiously eyed the crying Negi before turning her questioning gaze towards her father, "Negi-jii chan's a bit... errr too happy."

Her cute fox ears popped out again as her face scrunched up in an expression of intense thought, "But... happy means no tears?"

Naruto nodded, "Sometimes people cry when their too happy. But when people cry, sad or happy, they need someone to hug them."

Akako nodded as if someone had just given her the answer to life before climbing into Naruto's lap and winding her arms around Negi in a mini sized bear hug, "Negi-jii chan crying, so I must hug. Then we all go out and have sweets! Then Akako will cry because she is too happy, then Akako will get more hugs!"

Naruto sweat dropped at his daughter's somewhat skewed priorities.

******Broken Faith******

**OMAKE**

In class after the results for 3-A's end of term tests were announced.

"Whoa! Iincho, our class got second palce but you got first place among all the second year students!" Fuuka shouted excitedly.

"Fufufu! Of course! Who do you think I am? I can automatically remember anything I read!"

"Really?"

"Of course! Give me something to read and I'll even prove it!"

The small girl looked around excitedly and saw a small sheaf of papers with an orange cover on an empty desk, grabbing them, she shoved them in the blonde heiress's face, "Here read this!"

"Fufufu, all I have to do is gloss over the papers and I'll remember everything my eyes see." The class president boasted as she started sheafing through the papers rapidly.

The sound of someone knocking on the door and the only male student of 3-A poked his head in, distracting everyone but Iincho who was still flipping through the documents page after page without really reading it.

"Naruto? What's going on? I thought you had something to do?" Asuna spoke curiously.

"Ah... I... um left some important stuff in class. It's a bundle of papers with an orange cover that I left on my table."

The blonde skidded to a stop.

Asuna raised her eyebrow questioningly at his sudden freeze, "What are they?"

"The script to my..." His blue eyes which had been roving around class the moment he walked in were currently square on a certain blonde class president with a familiar orange note book in her hands, "My... book... Fuucc-..."

Haruna immediately detected the hitch in his voice, "Book? You write books?" her eyes started glinting, "What books are they?"

Ignoring the fujoshi of 3-A Naruto started inching his way out of class before the inevitable explosion happened.

"Oh a bundle of papers with an orange cover right?" She turned her eye on the blonde class president, "Ayaka was reading... them... Kyaaa! Someone help Iincho! She's bleeding!"

Said blonde class president was currently hunched in a corner of the floor, rocking back and forth with her eyes wildly jumping around the classroom with a horror filled yet goofy smile on her face as she quietly and repeatedly chanting some sort of mantra that sounded a lot like; "My eyes, my eyes! I can't forget it, I can't make it stop."

Blood was also spurting out of her nose every few sentence.

Everyone was panicking while Haruna quietly picked up the dropped papers.

"Someone help!" Asuna shouted and was about to dash out of the class when she heard some perverted giggling from another corner of the class, "Paru? What are you doing reading those? Can't you see Ayaka needs help! Gimme those!"

She pulled the papers out of a whining Haruna's hands and sheafed through them herself.

...

...

...

"**NARUTO!"**

"Crap." The blonde who was already halfway down the hall grumbled as he decided that he was in a very big hurry and thus needed to take a short cut. He jumped out the third floor window.

Whatever Asuna was going to do to him would hurt a lot less then falling out of the third floor. Maybe he wouldn't use chakra, and then when she found his broken body under the window she wouldn't hurt him as bad?

******Broken Faith******

**Pride – Journey of Sorrow**

_**Kokoro no me ni mieta no wa wasurerareta sekai no hate - **_What I see in my heart's eyes was the end of the world I once forgot

_**Yami no michi de kiita no wa watashi dake wo yobu koe - **_What I heard in the road of darkness is a voice of someone calling me

_**Nageki no tabi ga toki wo koete hajimaru nara - **_If the journey of sorrow starts when we transcended time

_**Kono inochi made mo takaku takaku kakageyou - **_then I would like to offer you this life_**Ai no na no moto ni, ai dake wo tayori ni - **_In the name of love, only rely on love

_**Iza yukan senjou eee - **_To the battlefield we must go

_**Kiseki no hana sakasu tame - **_So the flower of miracle can blossom_**Kagiri aru inochi to shitte ite daremo ga - **_Everyone who knows their life must end somehow

_**Kagiri nai yume wo miru - **_dream of never-ending dream

_**Hito wa yasashiki kemono nan da ne - **_People is sure an affectionate beast_**Namida wa kitto kanashimi no monoiwanu kotoba dakara - **_Tears are surely words of sadness that one can't say

_**Kimi no hoho wo ikuoku no kagayaki ga nurasu darou - **_What dampen your cheek are several million of them

_**Kibou wa zetsubou wo shiru mono no mune ni koso waku - **_People who know hope and despair, all of those seethed in their heart

_**Karenai izumi no you ni towa ni umaretsu'zukeru - **_And it would flow to eternity like an ever-flowing spring

_**Ai dake ga kikoeru, ai dake ga michibiku -**_ We only hear love, and only love guide us

_**Owari naki samayoi ni hitosuji no hi tomosu tame - **_We roam endlessly while drawing a line of light

_**Yuuki to wa kokoro no honoo da to ki ga tsuku - **_We realize bravery is a flame in our heart

_**Ibara no tsu'zuku michi wo hokori to tomo ni moetsukiru made - **_And we're walking the path of thorns until we're burned with pride

_**Inori yo todoke yo chiisaki kimi no mimune ni - **_Oh send this prayer, to his heart

_**Ten kara sazukaru kokoro wa tada ai no tame... - **_The heart I recieved from the Sky above is only for love..._**Ai wo daite - **_We hold on to love

_**I**__**za yukan senjou e - **_To the battlefield we must go to

_**K**__**iseki no hana sakasu tame - **_So the flower of miracle can blossom

_**A**__**i no na no moto ni, ai dake wo tayori ni - **_In the name of love, only rely on love

_**T**__**amashii no meizuru mama ni hokori to tomo ni moetsukiru made - **_I will do what my soul wants even if I am turned to dust and burned to ash

******Broken Faith******

**anon **

THis Sux! You shouLD DIe fOr the Sake of better FiCs! People like Kyuubi16 Are waY bETter auTHors than your FuCKed Up Arse.

**You know, when people troll, they at least try to be more subtle about it. Do I really need to teach you how to troll better? At least choose a more reasonable author to justify making me feel more pathetic. No offense to Kyuubi16 of course. It's just that our principles clash too much and I categorically refuse to read anything he writes on principle.**

**By the way, final exams are late June then I'll be doing my internship in July-August. Don't expect another update till at least after July. Add to that my recent slump in creativity and the fact that I lost my USB (With about 5-6 chapters in it)... **

**Worst case scenario = won't update till October. Anyways, I uploaded this and another Chapter of End Game simultaneously. I hope these two uploads will be enough to tide everyone over until whenever it is that I restart writing. **

**General mess of a life.**

**John.**

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note 2**

**I found more elaborations on what I actually wanted to add/convey with Naruto's speech about Light and Dark. Think Yin/Yang, not Good/Evil. Nagi is an idiot. Part of that means he is a near-incurable optimist, and doesn't sweat the details. Like actually memorizing all of the spells he is likely to use. Nagi is a heavily Yang personality (like Rakan himself), focused on getting it done _now_. Personality affects the style of spells selcted, tactics used, and strategy (or absence of same). Pre-Fest Naruto and to an extent, Negi, like his or would that be _their_ mother now?, are Yin personalities; planning, brooding, worrying. Prone to trying to take on the entire burden alone.**

**Rakan, Nagi = Gamble, trusting others where no reasonably sane person would have and pulling through due to pure shounen-esque will power alone.**

**Pre-Fest Naruto, Arika(Not too sure actually, the manga was rather vague but the forum seemed to classify her as such) = Rather cynical, One must die to save a thousand, kill now so that no chance to retaliate later etc etc.**

**Negi = somewhere in between, leaning towards Father in personality but Mother and Brother in tactics.**


	27. Nihil et Regnum, The Empty Throne

**Broken Faith 27**

**Nihil et Regnum; the Empty Throne.**

**Disclaimer : I own Jack Squat**

Yes. Yes I'm the type of person that can't focus on studying for too long before my mind starts wandering around, desperately thinking up shit, which of course resulted in me writing this chapter just so I don't have to look at a text book.

Why do you ask?

**Me after staring blankly at Auditing textbook for 3 hours straight**

- (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

**Soundtrack List**

Ayumi Hamasaki – Heaven

Legend of Heroes : Sora no Kiseki OST – Whereabouts of the Stars Harmonica Version

One Republic – Secrets

******Broken Faith******

Slender fingers unconsciously clenched and unclenched as their owner sat outside the entrance to Shinjuku's Park Hyatt's most luxurious penthouse.

Pale green eyes watched the mahogany doors steadily, studying each and every crack and grain in the wood, more to distract herself from the inevitable discussion rather than any real sense of boredom. That was why when the heavy doors were unexpectedly swung open; Ayaka Yukihiro could not prevent herself from jumping slightly.

"Your father is ready to see you young mistress."

Short and concise, something she was long used to from her father's personal attendant.

She smiled gently at the sharply dressed man with grey tinged auburn hair with an equally sharp handlebar moustache and received an equally warm smile in return, "Thank you Rob-jii san."

Sharp grey eyes glittered warmly and the older man bowed politely again before his lips took a down turn and he averted his eyes from hers.

At that, Ayaka had to forcibly remind herself to stop fidgeting and unnecessarily smoothing down her already pristine forest green gown again. Father hated it when people fidgeted; to him it was a sign of weakness. Not something that should be present in any of his offspring.

Swallowing the lump that had appeared in her throat, she strode in gracefully, her steps filled with confidence she wasn't really feeling. Directly at the back of the living room, behind an old and magnificent oak desk, with his back to an entire wall made of glass, an impeccably dressed gentleman sat with a proud, straight backed posture as he inspected a hand held screen in one hand with a tumbler of, going by the amber liquid swirling in it, what she assumed was whisky in the other.

With a posture every bit as regal and stiff as his, hands folded daintily in front of her, Ayaka stood exactly seven feet from the edges of his table and waited for the man to address her.

Ayaka found herself rather amused by the psychological warfare her father was trying to use on her. She knew it his standard tactic whenever he was meeting with anybody he felt was below his station, allowing his opponent's own fear, guilt and nervousness to overcome them and give him the upper hand. It would have worked if she didn't already know his habits, and so the blonde girl simply made herself content by observing him while she waited.

Grey hair was now interspersed with the black, combined with his confident posture, sharp black eyes and distinctly Asian jaw line, Ayaka wasn't surprised to note that it simply gave the impression that he wore his age with more confidence than most men could ever dream of. She had to ruthlessly suppress a whimsical smile as she randomly wondered whether a certain idiot blonde could match the stern and mature aura her father was giving off right now, when he was older.

Knowing him, he would either turn out to be some old perverted geezer type or surpass her father entirely. There was rarely any middle road when it came to him.

"It's good to see you again, Ayaka."

She internally chided herself for daydreaming and had to quickly gather her muddled thoughts, throwing out the less suitable ones while she was at it after her father's gruff voice had so suddenly broke the silence between them, "Is it good to see you too Otou-sama. You are looking well."

The regal man had finally put down his PA and settled his tumbler of whisky on the table with a slight clack, watching her from narrowed black eyes, "I was rather surprised by then sudden request."

He did not elaborate further but Ayaka knew he wasn't merely stating a fact; he was waiting for her to answer. Usually by not asking a specific question, it generally caused the person being questioned to out more information than was necessary.

Then again what was she supposed to say? I spent 40 million yen for a school festival because my friends asked me to host a special spontaneous event?

"My friends put forth an interesting idea. I felt it had merit, especially with the publicity both the Yukihiro name and the Mahora Academy could potentially gain if it was successful."

The man eyeballed her silently for a bit longer before picking up the hand held tablet again and pretended to read some data from it, "46 **MILLION** yen. On a **MIDDLE** **SCHOOL** event. Nearly half of that was given off as prizes, while the other half was spent on elaborate costumes and specialty equipment that almost certainly have no other use elsewhere."

The emphasis on the word 'million' and 'middle school' was not lost on her.

"In other words, wasted."

Ayaka winced and her shoulders sagged slightly, "I'm sorry Otou-sama." She murmured quietly

The black haired man stared at her for a while longer before shaking his head, "You remember our deal don't you?

Ayaka nodded, her eyes were still focused on the elaborate carpeting beneath her heels.

"I allowed you to return to middle and high school rather than start working for me even though you have already completed your university degree, your argument at the time was that you wanted some time away from your mother and that you did not know how to fit in to society. So I agreed, but in return; outside of a small allowance I gave you, you had to be absolutely self sufficient. You broke that deal."

Ayaka could've and would've argued a few points, like how that woman wasn't really her mother or like how he always seemed to turn a blind eye whenever that woman was putting down her achievements except that there really wasn't any point in doing so other than pettiness. Arguing something as petty as that right now would only seem pathetic and worsen her already terrible bargaining position, instead she felt compelled to defend her decisions.

She forcefully pulled her eyes up from where they were resting on the floor and steadily met his eyes, "But you can't deny that the Yukihiro zaibatsu profited from this. We've got an almost 30% increase in number of transactions alone the week after the Festival ended. All my calculations projected future increased demand on high end Yukihiro SFX technology, enough to justify the research costs; I've even sent you a report before I did anything, one that your analysts approved off. I just needed the start up capital." She pointed out as calmly and factually as she could. She knew that emotional and esoteric arguments held no water with him, only quantitative ones.

For a moment, father and daughter glared at each other over the table and she noticed that there was a strangely triumphant glint in his eyes, before the daughter relented and looked down once more; embarrassed that she had actually almost defied her father despite everything she had said to another blonde to the contrary.

"And that's exactly my point. This event has showed us exactly how good you are at managing businesses. Yet you want to throw all that away just so you can stay in **MIDDLE SCHOOL**?" His counter argument had been stated the same calm tone he had been using since the beginning but she noticed that there was now a hint of incredulity in his voice the way an adult would have while talking to a younger child that had just asked an incredibly stupid question.

Ayaka suppressed another wince; she had been trapped without realizing it. By pointing out that she had indeed done very well, it just didn't make sense for her father to waste a potentially significant asset like her by allowing her to stay in middle school.

For a moment, her mouth opened and closed aimlessly before clicking shut. She drew a deep breath and looked her father straight in the eye, "I want to stay with my friends and I don't want to get married yet." She stated resolutely.

They stared at each other for a while again before her father sighed in apparent disappointment, "I understand your argument, but you have to understand that having friends does not mean you will have a good life. Isn't it far more satisfying to get a stable career and home life? To be so much further ahead in life compared to them at such an early life? More importantly, you can never be sure when a friend will backstab you; the only thing you can count on is yourself."

Ayaka opened her mouth again but was cut off by her father raising a firm hand, "That's enough. No matter how you argue, can you really realistically say that succeeding in life is more important than some friends that you will eventually forget as you get older?"

Without giving her a chance to reply the older man answered anyway, "No you can't. You will go back to your room. After your final exams next week, you will prepare to transfer out then begin your job as your sister's assistant. Your husband has also been determined, you will meet him tomorrow." The older man gave her a tired and disappointed look that sent stabs of guilt and pain into the young girl's heart, "You are too young to understand now, Ayaka. But I promise, when you're older, you'll see that I just wanted the best for you."

Despair filled Ayaka's heart and tears pricked her eyes but she was determined not to let it show. Instead she only submissively bowed once and swiftly turned around before regally walking back out of the room.

The older man with greying blonde hair watched her retreating back with a complicated expression on his face before slumping back into his seat with a gusty sigh and a wry smile, "From here on out, show me if you have what it takes, Black Paladin."

******Broken Faith******

**Play Ayumi Hamasaki - Heaven**

Blank jade green eyes shone in a pitch dark room as they heedlessly stared at her reflection in the polished wooden surface of a large organ. Elegant manicured fingers aimlessly danced on the black and white keys of the organ in a tuneless jarring melody, reminiscent of the emotions boiling on her chest, even if the emotions in question were not readily apparent on her pale face.

Most girls probably would have stormed into their rooms, thrown themselves on their bed and cried their eyes out if they were in her shoes but the blonde had too much sense of decorum to fall victim to such common behaviour. Instead she had just mechanically walked into her own private room in the Park Hyatt, sat at her organ and listlessly began picking at the keys, anything to take her thoughts off her impending wedding and work life.

_**Saigo ni kimi ga hohoende  
Massugu ni sashidashita mono wa**_

It was only when she accidentally hit a particularly jarring note when the reality of the situation finally hit her and her thoughts began to achieve some semblance of order. She was going to have to leave Mahora Academy. She wouldn't see Asuna, Negi-sensei, Chizuru or Natsumi ever again. She would never see anybody from 3-A again.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a fluffy panda sitting on a corner of her bed. The panda that Naruto had won for her on their first date.

Ah...

She would never see Naruto again.

Well, not unless they miraculously managed to join _high society. _She grimaced as if those last two words were a particularly foul swear word, if there was anything she hated more than taking her family name like some pretentious spoiled child for granted, it was having to posture and rub elbows with old, horny bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen.

Then in contrast with her earlier mood, a small amused smile touched her lips. What wouldn't she give to see Naruto stuffed in a penguin tuxedo and attending a high class party. She'd give good odds that not even twenty minutes would pass before he inevitably snapped and threw a slimy politician off the nearest balcony.

_**Tada amarini kirei sugite  
Koraekirezu namida afureta**_

Her mood dropped again as the thought brought reality crashing back in. No matter how she imagined it, she would never see Naruto again. Right now, the blonde was probably having the time of his life with Asuna and Negi-sensei. He probably wasn't even thinking about her. How could he? Unless he stalked her all the time, he wouldn't even know she wasn't in the dorms.

As her thoughts steadily got angrier and angrier at the blonde male, Ayaka never even bothered to wonder why she felt a warm body pressing against her back or why the arm around her neck felt so real and why was a pair of strangely familiar calloused fingers playing with a strand of her glossy hair. She just brushed it off as a figment of her imagination, although... was she really so desperate for that idiot that she had started imagining that he would be here for her in her time of need?

Nope. That couldn't be it. His forceful proposal did not touch her at all. Things like that only happened in fairy tales that her Mother had spun for her on her bed side.

Yeap...

Wait.

Arm? Fingers?

_**Ano hi kitto futari wa  
Ai ni fureta**_

Ayaka immediately tried to flip the intruder over her shoulder. Naturally it didn't work since the arm refused to budge no matter how hard she pulled, "Relax bondage girl."

"Naruto?"

Said blonde chuckled at her adorable yelp, "Yeah." One finger slowly traced up and down her neck, eliciting a shiver from Ayaka, "I never thought I'd see the day that I would find you sitting in the dark and angsting like some gloomy fujoshi. It doesn't suit you, especially while you are wearing something as beautiful as this."

Ignoring his compliment, her back stiffened, "Do not presume to know me. You have no right to say what does or does not suit me."

Naruto just hummed somewhat relaxedly, "Hmm... probably. I have no right to say what suits Ayaka Yukihiro. But the bondage girl I know was bright and passionate. Something like this wouldn't have been enough to stop her. Every day she would attend class with her friends, excel in exams, loudly boss everyone in 3-A, and fuss over Negi like the world was ending."

_**Watashitachi wa sagashiatte  
Tokini jibun o miushinatte**_

She bristled and momentarily tried to struggle out of his embrace before her shoulder sagged in defeat, "What does it matter? It's not like you could do anything. If I asked you to elope with me could you do that? Could you leave Asuna, Chachamaru, Negi and Akako behind? Just for a girl that you've only been on date with once?" she muttered bitterly.

When there was no answer, the blonde girl snorted cynically, "See. You can't even do something like that. Just go Naruto. Jus- Kyaaah!" Firm hands grabbed her shoulders to turn her around, just as she was getting her bearings back a whiskered face was thrust right up to hers, so close that she could feel his breath playing on her lips and she could see his bright sapphire eyes glittering in the dark.

"Wh-wh-what the hell are you doing! Let me go you stupid idiot!"

Whatever Naruto seemed to be looking for in her eyes, he seemed to have found it and he wasn't pleased by what he found.

_**Yagate mitsukeatta no nara  
Donna ketsumatsu ga matte ite mo**_

Her male companion completely ignored her words and just lifted her up in a bridal carry, cheerfully replied, "Nope. No can do. My fiancée wants to elope with me. So that's what she will get."

"Hu-huh? You can't be serious!"

Completely unfazed by the fists beating on his chest, he ignored her words and just kept walking down the hallway, "Wa-wait! Let me down! I- I'll scream! There are a lot of bodyguards here! They'll stop you from kidnapping me!"

The blonde shinobi smirked down at her, "Go ahead. Scream. If that is what **you** want."

_**Unmei to iu igai  
Hoka ni wa nai**_

She really wanted to. Honest. But nothing came out of her open mouth other than a strangled "Urk."

Her mouth opened and closed a few more times until she finally gave up, her throat wouldn't respond to her for some reason, giving up, she tried another approach, "Let me down! If you do this my father will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth! He will destroy everything you hold dear!"

Her self-proclaimed fiancée eyed her curiously, "Did you take that sentence out of a game or something? Cause it kinda sounds like something Eva-chan was playing on her game machine thingy."

"Wh-wha? Stop joking around! This is serious! He will really do something about Asuna and the others if it can get him what he wants!"

_**la la la la la la la la la la  
la la la la la la la la la la **_

"You! What are you doing with Ojou-sama!"

Naruto glanced aside to where they had been discovered by a few people in black suits. He presumed they were the bodyguards that Ayaka had mentioned early. When they started charging at him, the blonde easily side stepped them and disabled them with a few pokes to their nerve points with his feet, rebuffing Ayaka's words as he did so, "He can try to do that. I'll just stop him."

Ayaka lowered her eyes, unconsciously she grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, "Why? Why are you doing this? You don't even love me and I don't love you. It's not worth sacrificing everything you DO love for me." She whispered weakly.

Soft lips brushed against her forehead and Ayaka immediately looked up in shock, Naruto simply gave her a small but confident lop sided grin as he continued to demolish his way down the five star hotel with his feet, "I told you before didn't I? I'll make you love me."

_**Kimi ga tabidatta ano sora ni  
Yasashiku watashi o terasu hoshi ga hikatte**_

He unleashed a massive glare filled with his Killing Intent down a hall way filled with black suited men.

Every one of them immediately passed out with a soft gasp.

"Besides who said I was sacrificing anything." He remarked casually.

"Bu-but Asuna and Chachamaru?"

"Who the hell do you think I am?" he leaped off the elaborate balustrade that led to the main entrance, "Whether it's you or Asuna and Chachamaru. I'll make all of you happy. It's that simple."

_**Soba ni ite aisuru hito  
Toki o koete katachi o kaete  
Futari mada minu mirai ga koko ni  
Nee konnanimo nokotteru kara**_

She could only stare at the blonde carrying her with glimmering eyes, deep down she couldn't help but want to believe him. She buried her face deep into his chest and nuzzled him slightly. Just one night, she promised herself. She would go along for the moment, and pretend that she really did have an inkling of feelings for the blonde; just to feel what a true romance might have felt like before entered a true fake one.

But one the sun rose again tomorrow, she would return to do her duties to the Yukihiro family...

"Ayaka-sama. Namikaze-san."

Ayaka immediately perked back up from Naruto's chest to stare in shock at the familiar voice, the elderly man who was their lone obstacle to the outside, "Rob-jii san?" she muttered incredulously.

_**Soba ni ite aisuru hito  
Toki o koete katachi o kaete  
Futari mada minu mirai ga koko ni  
Nokotteru kara**_

The elderly gentleman smiled warmly before shooting a glare at the lean blonde man carrying her.

"Will you stop us?"

"..."

The stllness between the two men stretched as they seemed to warily measure each other for a fight.

"Wa-wait! Don't hurt Rob-jii san, Ba-baka!"

The two of them glanced at her then resumed glaring at each other.

Irritated that they were ignoring her, Ayaka was about snap again but the tense atmosphere between the two men suddenly shifted and her father's personal assistant suddenly regained his warm smile before stepping aside and simultaneously throwing something to Naruto. The blonde somehow managed to keep Ayaka in his arms and yet catch the thrown item. After inspecting the item in his hand briefly Naruto nodded once in thanks and started moving again.

As they passed the older gentleman, Ayaka heard him whisper something to her kidnapper.

"Please take care of Ayaka-sama. She can be a little dense sometimes but please make her happy."

"Huh?" Whaa? Dense!

"Yeah. That's the plan. She has a beautiful smile."

The older man chuckled lightly, glancing at the radiantly blushing girl as he twirled his moustache with a knowing look in his eyes.

_**Shinjite aisuru hito  
Watashi no naka de kimi wa ikiru  
Dakara kore kara saki mo zutto  
Sayonara nante iwanai**_

Naruto didn't bother to hide his smug smile as he reached the jet black motorcycle that was parked in the middle of the lane, "Huh. That old man has taste."

"Wha? Thi-this bike? You're not serio-" Naruto dropped her on the bike gently and got on himself.

She grabbed the back of his jacket in panic, "Wait, you ARE serious! Wait you idiot! I've never ridden a bike before!"

His cheerful response did nothing to sooth her fears, in fact it only made her cling to him tighter as the hunk of metal beneath them started roaring even louder, "Neither have I. Should be fun. Just don't let go. I dunno where the brakes are on this thing so we might have to er…. **improvise**."

"WAAA-KYAAA!" she started screaming as the black Kawasaki Ninja sport bike roared forwards. Whether Naruto's accompanying laughter was directed at her or because he was just having too much fun was up for debate as they shot down the road.

_**Ano hi kitto futari wa  
Ai ni fureta**_

******Broken Faith******

It was a quiet night at one of the more abandoned industrial areas in Hachioji, but it didn't stay that way for long as a loud black sports bike roared to a stop in front of a particularly dilapidated building with two riders on it.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, the second passenger who was dressed in a deep forest green gown that was completely unsuited for the locale as well as the ride; literally jumped off it and the night air was split by her screeching as she began wailing away the first rider with her fists, "Yo-yo-YOU IDIOT! How can you just go get on a bike without even knowing how to brake! Do you know how scared I was! What was Rob-jii san even thinking? Giving something like this to an idiot like you?"

The rider merely laughed quietly and gathered the furious girl into an embrace after he slipped off the vehicle, "Relax."

Ayaka pouted but since her arms were being restrained she settled for slumping into Naruto's arms. They stood there in silence for a few minutes, Ayaka cuddled up in his arms and doing a few breathing exercises in order to calm down. When she finally regained her balance enough to gather her confused thoughts, she glanced around warily. Her regal nose immediately scrunched up in disgust at the shabby area, "Whe-where is this?"

She looked at the blonde man who was slightly taller than her accusingly, "You're not planning to do something bad to me here aren't you?"

Naruto blinked at the rather unexpected slight upon his honour, "Wha-what? Who the hell do you think I am? I'd never do something like that!"

"Then why the heck are we at a place like this?"

The blonde rolled his eyes, "There's a good reason." He waved at the building, "When I first awakened, I was rather lost and confused and outside of the items in my scroll, I literally had nothing but the rotten clothes on my back, so while I gathered them by working for the Dean, I was also making my own back up plans just in case something bad happened and I needed to disappear for a while."

Ayaka wrinkled her nose, "Back up plans? Were you expecting to become a fugitive or something?"

Naruto shrugged sheepishly, "At the time I didn't know anything about local customs and I as sure as hell wasn't going to trust the Dean immediately but didn't really have a choice since I needed currency and a place to regroup, so to speak." He looked away casually to hide the expression on his face from Ayaka and murmured lowly, "I was also rather used to being backstabbed by then."

The girl in his arms fell quiet and squeezed his fingers gently, "Why didn't you leave after you healed?"

"Because I was tired of running."

Naruto paused to grin at her mischievously, "And quite frankly, because teasing you is way more fun than travelling around the world alone."

Ayaka huffed and crossed her arms haughtily, pretending to ignore him, after a moment she looked around again, "So this... place is one of your safe houses?"

Naruto shot her an apologetic look as they started walking towards the building, "Yeah. We can stay here for tonight and figure out what we want to do from now on."

Pale bluish green eyes nervously looked away as Naruto opened the shabby door. She didn't want to tell him that she was determined to return to her father and do her duty tomorrow. If not for him then it was for the rest of her classmates. She didn't want her father taking it out on them just because they were acquaintances with her.

She... just wanted some time away to fully accept it before facing her eventual destiny.

Tha-that was right.

Just one night.

Ayaka steeled her resolve and followed him inside the run down building, the moment they cross the threshold, she had to cover her nose in disgust, "Ho-how can we stay here? It smells like something died in here!"

Her companion chuckled lightly, "Relax, I won't ask my princess to sleep in a place like this."

There it was again, him calling her princess again. Gah, he was so infuriating! And at the same time, it was making it harder and harder for her to rationalize going back.

Ayaka watched him stealthily walk over the wall furthest away from them and trace a few intricate patterns in the dust covered wall with his finger.

A panel of the wall recessed deeper in to reveal a tunnel that was barely big enough for him to pass, and that was if he crouched slightly. The jade eyed girl quirked an eyebrow in surprise; she hadn't heard the sound of gears moving, which meant the whole thing was being powered by magic.

Bending slightly, she followed his broad back down the tunnel lit with floating orbs that shone with a soft blue light, Naruto talked lowly, "All of my hideouts are equipped with water and magic dampening fields powered by runes or seals to hide us from prying eyes. We should be safe here for now. It took me quite a while to make them." There was a note of pride in his voice that made Ayaka really want to roll her eyes at his paranoia.

"Was it really necessary though? Outside of isolated events, I really don't see the need for something like this."

Naruto hummed quietly as they finally reached the end of the corridor, a small neat room that was lit with the same soft blue orbs she had seen in the tunnel, "Probably. But it was sort of an ingrained habit by then plus I really wasn't sure of the situation when I woke up. I might have awakened in the middle of a war or something. Besides you can't say this wasn't useful."

Ayaka made a non committal noise as she carefully lowered herself onto the bunk bed and looked around cautiously; the room appeared to be rather Spartan. Other than a the bed, a desk, a chair, a small safe that Naruto was currently rummaging around in, and a small back room that she assumed was the toilet, there was nothing else in the extremely neat room.

"Here, you can wear these for now." Pointing at the door she had noticed earlier, "You can clean up and change in there, if you want hot water, touch the red rune until it gets warm enough for you."

Ayaka could only mumble her agreement as she mechanically did as he had suggested silently; half in awe and half exasperated at the precautions the blonde man had taken. It was as if he expected to be thrust into a guerrilla battle from the moment he woke up.

After she had cleaned up with the hot water and felt incredibly refreshed from the bath, she cautiously stepped out of the steaming toilet with her neatly folded gown in one hand, the blonde shinobi seemed to be sitting a corner of the room, reading something in his hands.

The moment he heard the creaking of the door, Naruto looked up from his scroll.

His scroll, his jaw and his heart hit the floor in that order as he stared at the blonde princess with her hair tied up into a bun, dressed in a pair of too large shorts, a flannel shirt, and yet somehow managed to make it look better than he ever would. What was it with women looking better when they were dressed like that?

Ayaka noticed him staring with his jaw opened slackly and immediately blushed as she pulled the shirt tighter around her, "Wha-what? Why are you looking at me like that? You pervert!"

In response the blonde shinobi coughed loudly as he nearly swallowed his tongue during his brain's brief absence, "So-sorry, yo-you err... looked really... good. Better than in that gown even."

"Ah..."

Infuriating bastard.

Naruto quietly shuffled into his corner again and pointed at the bed without looking at her, "You can have the bed, I'll sleep on the floor. If you're hungry, there's some dried stuff."

"Oh..." Ayaka quietly slipped into the comforter, "No, that's alright, I'm not hungr-..."

Her classmate couldn't help but chuckle as she yawned cutely, causing the princess to glare at him, "It's been a long day. Sleep for now, we should be alright here for a day or two. I already asked a friend to bring us some extra supplies."

The blonde reached out one hand to swipe a weakly glowing seal on the wall, causing the floating orbs to dim noticeably before gradually disappearing completely. The two of them curled up on their respective beds in the dark, Ayaka on the thin mattress and Naruto on the floor, wrapped up in a thin blanket.

**Play Legend of Heroes : Sora no Kiseki OST – Whereabouts of the Stars **

Ayaka didn't know how much time passed as the two of them tried to fall asleep.

Or at least she tried; she wasn't sure if the Namikaze had fallen asleep already or not because there hadn't been any changes in the rhythm of his breathing. Desperately she tried to find a comfortable spot on the bed by tossing and turning as quietly as she could so that she didn't break the stillness of the dark room. Strangely enough, despite being tired, she couldn't fall asleep at all, although that was probably because she kept thinking about the situation she was currently in.

She also tried not to think of the fact that she and someone she was _probably _attracted to were in a small dark room.

It wasn't working.

Not to mention she felt rather guilty that she was sleeping alone on the bed, with a nice comforter while Naruto was on the hard cement floor with nothing but a thin piece of cloth as protection from the autumn cold.

Heaving a disgruntled sigh, she finally sat up tiredly and threw the comforter off with a tired look on her face. Grabbing the cotton cloth, Ayaka timidly crept towards where she could hear Naruto's breathing and tried to cover the blonde with it as discretely as she could, not wanting to wake him up if he was truly asleep.

Once that was done, she sidled back under the edge of the covers, as far away from Naruto as possible. Once she was sure that she hadn't disturbed him, Ayaka let a relieved sigh escape her lips and wiggled a bit into a more comfortable position. The cement floor was hard and cold, but strangely enough it was more comfortable then the bed. She tried not to attribute that to the fact that she was close enough to Naruto to feel his body heat.

"What are you doing?"

"Eeek!"

She heard a deep chuckle from the body sharing the comforter with her before strong arms suddenly winded themselves around her torso, pulling her closer to him. A shiver that had absolutely nothing to do with the cold ran down her back as she felt her body crushed against his.

"Better?"

Not trusting herself to speak properly, Ayaka could only nod, not caring whether he saw it or not. Though, judging by the fact that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck, it was probably safe to say he had noticed.

They stayed like that for a long still moment sharing the warmth of the comforter, Ayaka resting her head on one of Naruto's biceps while the other was securely around her waist.

The period of silence as they lay on the floor together felt almost sacred and breaking it seemed really wrong but she couldn't take it anymore.

She needed to know.

"... Why?" she asked softly.

The breath on the nape of her neck hitched as the blonde mumbled sleepily, "Why what?"

Ayaka sighed exasperatedly, wondering if he was pretending to be stupid or if he was really just that obtuse, "Why go so far for me? I know I keep saying this but by doing this, you are leaving everyone else behind. I know you don't really have feelings for me, or at least not like you do for Chachamaru or Asuna. So why?" She asked bluntly.

"Mmm... that's true." Ayaka's heart fell.

"Ignoring me for the moment. What do you think Asuna, your best friend in Mahora, would feel when she hears that you went and got married without letting her know?"

"...She would hate me." Ayaka's reply was barely a choked out whisper.

"Nah, she wouldn't hate you, but she's too nice for that. But she'd be angry with you. She'd be angry that you didn't tell her, she'd be even angrier with herself for being the reason this is happening. She would be disappointed that her rival, someone she admired for being strong and indomitable gave up just like that. She would sad that you aren't there to argue and bicker with her, that you aren't there to fawn over Negi anymore. And most of all, she be angriest with you for bending over so easy. Especially if she realizes that you didn't get married out of love"

A nostalgic smile crept onto Ayaka's pale lips. Yeah, that idiot would definitely be angry with her. Unknowingly tears started falling.

"What do you think she would do then?"

"Huh?" Ayaka tried to stop crying to answer properly as his warm fingers were slowly touching her cheeks and wiping her tears away. The ones around her waist stroked her skin soothingly.

"She'd find out where you went, where you were getting married, then she'd jump in, crash the wedding as loudly as possible and then kidnap you. And then because this is Asuna we're talking about, she'd bring everyone else from 3-A, including me and Negi, just for shits and giggles."

A resigned smile crept onto her lips even through her tears and she nodded again.

"Then we'd have an international incident on our hands where everyone gets screwed one way or another. By kidnapping you alone, I'll be the only one to take the fall."

Oh... so this was purely for Asuna. To keep her friend safe.

Not her.

Yeah, that was what she expected.

Was what she thought, but it hurt, and she couldn't help but curl up tighter, trying to stop her tears.

It hurt more than she expected.

Her body tried to jerk away from contact with Naruto but the blonde refused to let go of the sobbing girl.

"Well. That's one reason anyway. That's not the only reason." A whisper that sounded rather embarrassed for some reason reached her ears.

Huh?

"Why was I willing to do this even if you're just a classmate? Why was I willing to do so much to help this girl that stumbled into my bed during the Kyoto trip, that looked beautiful whenever I teased her so much she got pissed? I asked myself that same question. Do you want to know what the answer was?"

Ayaka sniffed tearily and nodded.

"I care for you a lot but I don't love you."

The blonde girl scrunched her eyes shut and stifled the urge to get up and run.

"If you truly believed it was your duty to listen to your father and get married according to his wishes, I would have obliged, kept quiet and left. Yet that time in your room, when I looked into your eyes, the bright lively sparks that was always present in your eyes were gone. At the time I realized, that; no I don't love you. But it would be too easy to fall for you."

His arm around her waist pulled her closer and he whispered lowly, "And I fell hard. That's why."

"Really?"

Naruto winced; he had never heard her sound so small and timid before. It didn't suit her.

"Have I ever lied to you before?" Simply saying yes did not feel adequate.

Ayaka turned around to look at him through teary blue eyes and hesitantly spoke, "You will love me like Chachamaru, Akako and Asuna?"

"Yeah, I will. I promise."

Tears began dotting her lashes again and she screwed them shut in embarrassment, "Sorry, I can't seem to stop crying for some reason."

Naruto simply held her tighter as she slowly regained her composure, "Well, think of it this way, if we do get married, you'll be registered as a Namikaze-Springfield and Negi will technically be your little brother. You can baby him all you want."

Ayaka couldn't help it, she buried her face in his chest and began giggling at his words. Naruto smiled, happy that his little quip had managed to get her to stop crying.

When the princess finally stopped laughing, she peered into his eyes, a hint of fire returning to her jade blue orbs as she jutted her chin out at him defiantly, "You're not doing this because I'm rich or beautiful, are you?"

It was only for a second but the girl in his arms stiffened in surprise as Naruto leaned in and forcefully kissed her soft pouting lips, pouring all his thoughts, feelings and conflicts into that one kiss, tenderly tracing soft patterns on her back as he did so.

When they finally separated again, Naruto smiled at the dazed girl in his arms, "I told you before didn't I? I didn't fall in love with Ayaka Yukihiro. I fell in love in with bondage girl. I couldn't care less if you were rich or beautiful, although if you were, we probably wouldn't be in this situation in the first place."

She blinked a few times before finally regaining the capability to think properly again and glared at him, "You're never going to stop calling me that are you?"

He grinned down at her, the pure fire and passion in her that had attracted him had finally returned in full force, "Nah."

"Good." Ayaka's thin arms wound around his neck and jerked his lips down to hers. Her lips darting out to caress his in tantalising glimpses. When she finally let him go, Naruto couldn't help but see stars.

"Wow."

Ayaka smirked triumphantly. First kiss or not, she was a fast learner after all.

******Broken Faith******

Artificial orange light mimicking the rising sun slowly grew in brightness as they shone on two entangled bodies; the comforter was half kicked off and covered only their lower bodies. In response; the larger of the two bodies began to stir slightly. Sapphire eyes slowly opened blearily to see a head of bright yellow hair, their own was currently drooling on his chest. His eyebrows twitched slightly at the cute scene, sometime during the night, Ayaka had apparently climbed on to him to use his body as a mattress.

Sighing slightly, he relaxed again, one hand automatically starting to stroke her soft hair while the other shaded his eyes from the orange orb of light on the ceiling.

"Muuu..." his lips twitched slightly at the satisfied moan from the lump on his chest as it began to awaken as well. Mussed sunshine yellow hair shifted as the girl on his chest stretched cutely then pale green eyes began to open slowly, looked up at him and blinked sleepily.

"Awake already?"

He watched as realization slowly dawned in her green eyes, her face burning a violent red as it did so before burying her face in his chest, "This is so embarrassing."

"What is?"

"You seeing me after I wake up. I look so inelegant!" She complained in a muffled tone.

Naruto shrugged lightly and lightly caressed her cheek, "I don't really think so. Girls always look incredibly beautiful when they just wake up. I don't know why, it has something to do with their natural beauty just shines through at times like that I guess."

Ayaka gave him a deadpan look, "Akane-san trained you well." She drily remarked.

He simply winked mischievously back in return and laid a gentle kiss on the top of her head, taking a breath of her unique scent as he did so, "True that. But I wasn't lying either. Whenever I see Chachamaru, Akako, you or any other girl really, when they've just woken up, there's this adorableness about their sleepy expressions, cute sounds or tousled hair that makes me want to hold them as long as possible."

She tried not to roll her eyes at his impassioned speech and failed magnificently, "That's the first time I've heard about a fetish for something like that."

"Hey! I just think girls look their best when they look natural." Naruto grumbled with humour lacing his tone.

"Yeah... Pervert."

"Oi!"

Ayaka chuckled as she laid back down on his chest, one finger idly tracing patterns on his broad chest.

"What do you want to do today?"

She looked up at him with thoughtful eyes, "I... I want to go back and see Otou-sama."

Naruto's watched her with concern, "You're not going back to get married to whichever idiot he picked are you?"

Ayaka gave him a miffed look, "You proposed and I accepted. Are you backing out on me now?"

"No, no... I'm just worried about you."

She settled back on his chest and listened to his reassuring heart beat with her eyes closed, "I just want to clear the air between. No matter what, I'm still his daughter and I have a duty to him, within reason of course."

Ayaka sat up and held up a fist in defiance to an imaginary opponent, "If I don't go back to Mahora, Asuna will be mad with me, and I still have to pamper Akako and Negi a lot!"

Naruto chuckled at the righteous look on her face, "Alright, alright, let's get cleaned up, then we'll go back to meet your father."

Ayaka scrambled up and quickly darted into the toilet, leaving Naruto to wonder why the female half of his species were so conscious about being seen after waking up.

It took the both of them nearly an hour to get ready, mostly because Ayaka refused to leave the bathroom until everything was perfect, even if she had to wear the same gown again. The couple kept a light and cheery atmosphere between them as they quickly ate and left Naruto's safe house.

"I was waiting for you."

That was the first thing both of them heard the moment they stepped over the threshold into the bright morning sun. Outside, leaning on the motorbike was a youthful man, sharply dressed in a black suit and orange tie, with brown spiky hair and a posture that gave others the impression that he was extremely laid back and sleepy.

Despite that, Naruto tensed, fully aware that his heavy lidded eyes and slouched posture hid an extremely determined fire if the orange fire burning in the man's eyes were any indication, "Sawada-san."

"Tsuna-jii san!"

Naruto blinked, Ayaka knew him?

The young man smiled affectionately, "Ayaka-chan. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, but why are you here Tsuna-jii san?"

"Your father contacted me last night. He said a Western Mage had kidnapped his daughter." The tenth leader of the European Mage Union rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly, "Imagine my surprise when I saw it was you, Naruto-san."

Sensing the mounting tension, Ayaka immediately dashed in front of Naruto with her hands spread open, "It's not his fault Tsuna-jii san. I-I asked him to take me. I needed some time away from Otou-sama to think! We're already going back to talk to him, there's no need to fight is there?"

The brown haired man nodded blandly, "I figured as much. Unfortunately, despite being a non-mage, your father **is** a valued member of the European Union of which the Vongola are a part of. I cannot refuse his requests without a good reason or we would face unfortunate backlash. As it is, Naruto-san is guilty of offences against a Union member. Your father wishes him to be punished no matter what." He looked pleadingly at the blonde girl, "I know Naruto-san isn't truly at wrong here, but it is what your father has asked of us and it is completely within his rights. Please step aside so we can take him into custody."

"No! I know Otou-sama will want him punished no matter the reason, just let me take him to otou-sama to explain everything."

"… I'm sorry Ayaka-chan. Your father has already predicted this would happen. He says that because of last night, you have shamed him in the eyes of your potential fiancée and wasted their time. Even if you do come back with him, Naruto-san has to be punished and you will have to get married with the man he has chosen."

"Tsun- Eek!" a blonde clone had hefted Ayaka up into a bridal carry while the original stepped forward, "You go ahead and talk to your father Ayaka. I'll try to reason with Sawada-san a bit longer."

Ayaka glanced at the broad back shielding her from Tsuna-jii san's line of sight and gathered her resolve. Her jaws clenched in anger and defiance, "Alright, just wait for me. I'll get Otou-sama to stop this stupidity."

The spiky haired youth made no move to stop Naruto's clone from leaving with Ayaka, his attention focused on the original, the air between them stilled.

"I'm sorry this had to happen, Naruto-san."

The blonde simply smiled flatly in response, "Don't worry about it. I already predicted this would happen. I just didn't expect you to come yourself."

"Unfortunately. Even without magic, his words hold much weight in the Union and he is one of the loudest voices against discrimination towards non-mages. Were it not for him, magic terrorism against non-mages would have been far more widespread. Even if that was not the case, Ayaka-chan's father is still one of our biggest sponsors and I cannot simply refuse a request for help to fend off an attack against his family."

Red gauntlets that seemed to be made out of some sort of polished metal formed around his fists and orange fire began burning brightly, both on the gauntlets and Tsuna's forehead.

"Even if you know what he is doing is wrong?"

The older man disappeared from his spot and reappeared directly in front of Naruto with a fist already cocked back, "It is legal." Was all he said before a burning gloved fist rocketed forwards.

Swiftly deflecting the flaming fist, Naruto reacted by grabbing the outstretched arm and trying to slam his elbow into the Tenth's elbow joint before twisting the arm to chamber an upper cut into his chin, Tsuna simply stepped forward, evading the elbow and countered the upper cut with an elbow strike. The impact from the elbow nearly staggered Naruto, but the blonde barely shook it off and flowed into a handstand, utilizing the force from the counter to spin a full circle and axe kick his opponent. His downward kick was blocked by Tsuna's cross guard. Undeterred, the blonde curled the leg against Sawada-san's right arm, shifted his weight and used his stomach muscles to pull himself up and launch two knife hand strikes at the sides of Tsuna's neck from his position. The brown haired man easily stopped both knife hands using his left elbow and palm before said palm launched an immense beam of orange fire point blank at the blonde's stomach. Blue eyes snapped open and Naruto instinctively leaned back down into a handstand, narrowly avoiding the attack and using the leg around Tsuna's arm to lift him and tried to slam the man into the ground head first.

The tenth leader of the European Union immediately twisted in mid air and placed his free palm on Naruto's knee. As the glove began glowing with an intense orange fire again, Naruto's immediately let his hold on the tenth's arm go, it was either that, or risk losing his knee. This resulted in the older man being thrown in the air instead of being slammed into the ground as planned, however instead of flying away, his upward momentum was immediately halted by flames from his gloves, just as suddenly the flames intensified, sending him rocketing back at Naruto and landing a powerful flame fuelled hammer strike on the blonde's abdomen with both fists, hard enough to leave the blonde's still body in a huge crater.

Tsunayoshi glanced down at the body, still with the same calm yet intense expression on his face, "Don't waste your time trying to trick me. Due to my Hyper Intuition, feints or tricks don't work on me. Although I must say I'm surprised. From what I have seen so far, you usually fought with pactio type artefacts supplemented power type brawling, instead you've only been using non lethal grapples so far."

The body in the crater immediately poofed away at his words and another blonde launched out of the ground to grapple with his brown haired opponent, evading point blank beams of fire and aiming for his joints. Sawada-san barely seemed fazed and defended himself from each grapple with precise strikes before finally landing a double palm strike on the blonde's upper torso.

Hurling through the air, the blonde's sapphire irises morphed into a violet colour with concentric rings around the pupil before he grunted, liberally applying his powers to soften the fall. As it was, the blonde landed in a crouch hard enough to leave a trench in the ground.

Holding his bruised ribs, Naruto managed to growl out as his legs pumped forwards again with as much speed as he could muster, _"Rasengan Saishu Genkai – Ame no Nuboko!"_

A familiar, sparking, neon blue javelin forming in his hand, "I don't care if it's legal or not. I'll do what's right no matter what."

He thrust the javelin out like a spear directly at the Tenth's torso.

"_Mantella di Vongola Primo_." The red metallic gauntlet around Tsuna's left fist morphed into a blue one with spikes on it, the Roman numeral for ten on its diamond clad back shifted into a single I and the suit wearing young man was suddenly clad in a black voluminous cloak that he flourished around him.

A loud screeching sound filled the clearing as the tip of the blue sparking spear hit the cloak and was stopped cold.

Naruto's purple eyes widened in shock, even Sasuke's SusanoO had been pierced by this attack, yet a piece of cloth had stopped his attack easily. Even as he watched, the tip of his Ame no Nuboko began crumbling and the screeching sound began to disappear, "Do what is right?" He snorted calmly, "Screw the rules? I admit, I don't like what Yukihiro-san is doing either, but he isn't wrong. **The rules are there for a reason**, yes this incident seems bad, but if there rules were not there in the first place, even worst things would have happened on a regular basis. You should have discussed this with Yukihiro-san diplomatically, instead you kidnapped his daughter."

"_Mitena di Vongola Primo" _Hidden by the voluminous cloak, the right gauntlet began to shift into a large, gleaming gauntlet with a sharp point. "Admit it; you are only doing this because Ayaka-chan is connected to you. Would you do the same for any other person in a similar situation? No you won't, you self righteous hypocrite. For all your proclamations that you will do what is right, what you are doing is now is the complete opposite. It's not right, it's selfish."

Jarred by the older man's words, the blonde could only stumble back slightly before the black cloak suddenly shot out with a jerk of his left arm, wrapping around Naruto so tightly that the shinobi couldn't escape.

"_Big Bang Axle."_ Tsuna swung his right fist, the silver metal burnt as bright as a comet, leaving a fiery trail in its wake, the sharp point heading straight for the blonde's face.

******Broken Faith******

"Na-Naruto! Slow down!" Ayaka yelled as she clung to the blonde's clone tighter.

"Ahaha, sorry Ayaka-chan, but someone's following us, the boss wants me to get you out of here before they catch up." The clone laughed sheepishly.

"We've already caught up. We were just waiting." A tall young man with a sword and a cherry grin landed in front of them lightly.

"Waiting for what teme?"

An arrow burning with red flames flashed by the clone's cheek, opening the slightest of cuts on its cheek. The clone instantly poofed away, barely having time to make a surprised look on its face as it immediately dropped Ayaka who screamed in surprise, "Kyaah!"

The young man darted forwards with amazing speed, catching the blonde girl, "Waiting for that. Nice shooting Gokudera!" He called out cheerfully.

"Yo, baseball freak, you got the girl?" a grey haired youth stepped out of the trees called back crudely.

"Yep."

"Good, I wanna go help Juudaime. You can handle this right?"

"Hai, hai."

"Don't mess this up, just bring her to the client and make sure she ain't hurt." The second youth called over his shoulder as he leapt away agilely.

"Ahaha, sorry bout this ojou-chan. Don't worry, you'll be safe with me."

Ayaka blinked, still startled by the exchange, "Ah…." She narrowed her eyes at him as a sly thought began forming in her mind, "You are bringing me to my father?"

"Yep." He grinned affirmatively.

"Would you mind taking me somewhere first? I need to get something urgently."

Yamamoto gently lowered Ayaka to her feet and scratched his head, "Its… ok I guess, as long as you don't try to run away."

"Don't worry. I won't. I want to talk to my father after all."

"Then it's no problem. Come on, we have a car waiting." The tall man led Ayaka away, whistling happily as he did so.

******Broken Faith******

An extremely loud explosion rocked the clearing, the building where Naruto's safe house had been located had been blown away by the force of the Tenth leader of the European Union's attack.

"Hooh? That's interesting." Sawada commented with one hand still outstretched, but his target was obscured by smoke.

With a flick of his left wrist, the cloak swished loudly and blew the smoke away, revealing the silver point of his gauntlet to be buried in some sort of white metallic mask, barely stopping it from doing maximum damage to his target.

Glancing downwards, Sawada noted a silvery drill like lance that had scored a slash on his side. The attack had earlier forced him to evade or be run through, reducing the power of his_ Big Bang Axle._

The white mask slowly crumbled away like clay despite looking like metal, revealing purple eyes with concentric rings and whiskered cheeks. As the two of them leapt away from each other, the tenth smiled slightly as he rubbed his side to alleviate the pain, "That… is decidedly not a pactio."

The blonde glanced down at his right arm. Halfway down, ordinary flesh had transformed into a metallic 2 meter long drill like lance, "No it's not. Unfortunately, I only received this ability recently and haven't had much practice with it. There's also the problem that this ability eats up too much calories to use often; I am literally shedding flesh as they break off. And quite frankly, it looks rather disgusting." Naruto remarked with a wry smile.

Naruto dashed forward, his left hand morphing into some sort of scythe. Tsuna ducked under the wide slash and flipped backwards, evading rapid thrusts from the lance before firing a massive fire attack during the lull in between thrusts.

The scythe immediately morphed again, forming a massive silver shield that seemed to be made of the same organic yet metallic material as the scythe and lance, the kite shield took the attack head on without even cracking.

Flaming eyes widened as his body was suddenly jerked forward by an invisible force, immediately he tried to counter it by increasing the soft flames in the opposite direction, narrowly evading another smaller lance that had shot out of the blonde's shoulder.

Landing lightly, both of them panted, "Body morphing and control of vectors, can I assume that has something to do with the change in your eyes?"

Naruto smiled slightly, "Technically I have three at the moment, but I get the feeling trying to read your mind would only give me a headache."

"Oh? What is this ability called?"

"The _Rinnegan_. Or the _Eyes of reincarnation_."

"Hmmm…. That sounds familiar." Tsunayoshi stood up and began dusting his suit lightly, "Would I be right in saying that there are six abilities in total?"

"I'm not entirely sure actually," the blonde admitted freely as he panted tiredly on his knees, "My predecessor seemed to have all six abilities unlocked from the start, mine, although more potent than his, appear to have a few conditions before they are usable to me. In that case, it's entirely possible I might not get the full six."

The man in the suit began laughing, "It seems that the abilities given by the Eyes of Reincarnation differ from person to person. One of my guardians has similar abilities but his are geared towards illusions. You seem to be of the more straightforward type; it's probably no surprise that your abilities are of the direct combat variety. You should talk to my friend when you have time. He might be able to help you unlock the rest of your abilities."

"I'd lo-" Naruto momentarily froze.

"What's wrong?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man, "It seems that you predicted I would try and get Ayaka away before stalling you. Two of your subordinates have defeated my clone and captured Ayaka."

Tsunayoshi winced, "'_Capture_' makes it sound like we're the bad guys," he grumbled lightly, "But yes, I expected you to do exactly that while Ayaka tried to convince her father."

"Juudaime!" another voice called out, interrupting their conversation. A grey haired youth about the same age as Tsunayoshi landed in a cat like manner. From the memories of his clone, Naruto noticed that they were all wearing the same sharp black suit but with a few alterations to suit each person's individuality.

"Juudaime! You're hurt!"

Tsunayoshi brushed his fussing assistant off, "It's just a scratch, I've had worst."

"Gah! You!" He pointed at the blonde with an accusing finger, "I'll get you for hurting the Juudaime!"

Naruto nodded slightly and pulled out a card, "I really didn't want to use a Pactio against you because of who they came from and the reason I got them in the first place, it would not be right to use a Pactio gained as a Representative from the East and the West in a personal battle but it's starting to look like I don't really have a choice."

"You will still fight? Even after Ayaka-chan has been…. Captured?"

"Yeah, I'll just have to go save her then _persuade _her father."

"Even after how I told you that everything you've been doing is nothing but because you are selfish and naive."

Naruto winced.

**Play One Republic – Secrets**

He slowly drew the Pactio across his chest and intoned a quiet _Adeat._

"When I was first awakened, I had planned to leave Mahora as soon as possible. It didn't take long for me to heal and figure out that my powers are severely limited outside of Mahora, but as long as I lived a normal life, there wouldn't be a reason for me to need them. I could live alone, that was all I wanted. To be left alone. I didn't plan on bonding with anyone, I had the memories of my wife, I thought it would be enough."

The card glowed and slowly transformed into a huge silver two sided blade with an undecorated hilt.

"I wanted to leave, but then I met everyone in 3-A. They accepted me without question even though I was nothing but a hostile stranger. Negi, Asuna, Setsuna, Chachamaru, Ayaka. All of them accepted me."

He twirled the and bent his knees into a ready position, causing his opponents to tense.

"I was tired of running, of having to fight just so I can live without having a group or retards trying to kill me for one reason or another, of hiding secrets just so I can have friends. But then I realized that none of them cared that I used to be a murderer, so I stopped running."

"Yeah, I'm selfish, Yeah I'm greedy." he remarked bluntly, "I can't justify why I am doing this other than because I love Ayaka. Yeah, I can't help everyone, I don't have the answers."

He put two fingers on the hilt of the blade.

"But I'll let you know when I find out. For now, I have to find my fiancée. And you happen to be in the way."

He pinned them both with a powerful stare, "I can't control this yet. Don't die."

"_**Even if all of Heaven's hosts stands in my way, the blade of my conviction shall pierce them. This is my Justice.**__**Nihil et Regnum."**_

The sword began burning with a blue flame, its intensity matched the orange ones that wreathed Tsunayoshi's gauntlet, as it began shifting, what began as a solid two sided sword morphed into an even larger and strangely segmented blade.

With a click, the sword separated into two pieces that Naruto twirled into a reverse gripped cross guard, "I can usually activate their second stages without an incantation, but that generally weakens them. I think I might need that lil extra right now."

Nodding in satisfaction, Naruto disappeared, leaving two bright blue trails of fire.

"Gokudera! Get the hell out of here!"

"Wha-what? Juudai- Gha!" Grunting, the brown haired man lifted his friend by the collar and threw him out of the clearing before fluidly spinning to block a flaming blade with his gauntlets. A split second before the sword landed, Tsuna's eyes widened in surprise and the flames on his gauntlet intensified, grunting as he barely managed to withstand the attack, the same spot had been hammered six times instead of one. If he hadn't noticed and reinforced his gauntlet, it probably would have cut completely though. Another blade appeared near his mid section, the orange eyed man immediately dropped to the ground, avoiding six interlocking slashes.

What had looked like one blade was actually six.

His eyes twitched slightly; there was more than one blonde on the field now, and all of them danced in an intricate rhythm. Clones?

He rolled away, avoiding six consecutive downward strikes; each perfectly timed to corral him. All of the replicas seemed to be moving in a strange synchronized motion, each a split second later than the first, creating the illusion that there was only one insanely fast blonde. The floating blue fires all over the field wasn't helping. He blinked. Something was wrong.

They weren't clones.

Each and every one of them was somehow real.

Roaring in defiance, the blazing flames on his gauntlets burnt larger and the tenth disappeared as well, matching blow for blow, evading or deflecting the slashes by punching the flat of the blade in rapid succession. As they danced back and forth across the clearing, in a symphony of blue and orange flame trails, Tsunayoshi, methodically began to see through the technique. There were six groups and each group contained six blades, together when viewed from above, the six groups would look as if they were moving in a massive interlocking helix.

Slowly closing in on the middle. Him.

"_Final Heaven."_

The ground around him suddenly flared with a red light. Too late, he realized that a barrier had been erected, each missed slash from the blades had not been wasted, each gash they made on the ground were slowly pieced together to create a tight barrier that locked him in. Just as he was about to attack the barrier, the sound of glass cracking could be heard.

He shielded himself and instinctively looked up. Above him a huge shattering sound could be heard as the sky itself cracked like glass. Something was pounding on the other side of whatever that glass wall was.

He blinked in shock as the massive tip of a burning sword pierced through the sky, sending shards of glass raining down in the barrier, as they fell, each shard morphed into a copy of the huge blade. Expertly, Tsuna began punching the blades away from him as the massive sword began retreating for one last charge, leaving a gaping hole in the sky.

The massive flaming sword rammed completely through the glass barrier, followed by another six smaller copies. all of them revolving in an intricate sequence that Tsuna absently noted, gave the impression that instead of seeing seven massive swords falling from the sky, it was one combined massively huge one that was as wide as the barrier. Apparently there was no dodging this once someone was trapped

Grinning widely, he began powering up his gauntlets.

Interesting.

Naruto Namikaze-Springfield was too interesting.

"_Burning Axle!"_

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note**

Translation Ayumi Hamasaki – Heaven

_**Saigo ni kimi ga hohoende - **_What you offered straight to me_**  
Massugu ni sashidashita mono wa - **_With a smile for the last time_**  
Tada amarini kirei sugite - **_Was just so beautiful_**  
Koraekirezu namida afureta - **_That I gave way to tears

_**Ano hi kitto futari wa - **_Surely, that day_**  
Ai ni fureta - **_The two of us touched love

_**Watashitachi wa sagashiatte - **_We sought for each other_**  
Tokini jibun o miushinatte - **_Lost ourselves at times_**  
Yagate mitsukeatta no nara - **_And found each other at last_**  
Donna ketsumatsu ga matte ite mo - **_So whatever result may be waiting for us

_**Unmei to iu igai - **_It's nothing but_**  
Hoka ni wa nai - **_Destiny

_**la la la la la la la la la la  
la la la la la la la la la la **_

_**Kimi ga tabidatta ano sora ni - **_In the sky you set out for_**  
Yasashiku watashi o terasu hoshi ga hikatte - **_Stars are shining tenderly upon me

_**Soba ni ite aisuru hito - **_Stay by my side, my love_**  
Toki o koete katachi o kaete - **_Crossing over time and changing your shape_**  
Futari mada minu mirai ga koko ni - **_You see? The future we haven't yet seen_**  
Nee konnanimo nokotteru kara - **_Remains here like this

_**Soba ni ite aisuru hito - **_Stay by my side, my love_**  
Toki o koete katachi o kaete - **_Crossing over time and changing your shape_**  
Futari mada minu mirai ga koko ni - **_The future we haven't yet seen_**  
Nokotteru kara - **_Remains here

_**Shinjite aisuru hito - **_Trust me, my love_**  
Watashi no naka de kimi wa ikiru - **_You live within me_**  
Dakara kore kara saki mo zutto - **_So I'll never_**  
Sayonara nante iwanai - **_Say good-bye to you

_**Ano hi kitto futari wa - **_Surely, that day_**  
Ai ni fureta - **_The two of us touched love

_******Broken Faith******_

_**How was it? **_

_**Negima summer holidays, trip to the beach and Wales begins next chapter!**_


	28. Simplicity

**Broken Faith Chapter 28**

**Simplicity**

**Disclaimer : I Don't Own Anything Other Than My Own Ideas. Excluding the source material, Naruto and Negima.**

Let me be absolutely frank. This chapter was already done, nearly a month ago, to be precise, I had a starting, and I had an ending. I simply had trouble picturing how to bridge the two parts suitably.

So here I am, middle of the night, puling an all nighter on my Auditing Assignment when I decided to take a breather by finishing this chapter.

**Soundtrack List**

Supercell – Utakata Hanabi

Chemistry (FMA OP) - Period

ZONE – Secret Base

******Broken Faith******

"_Burning Axle!"_

"_Final Heaven!"_

The clearing shook from the explosion, the red barrier shattered like glass and the ground itself rumbled like there was an earthquake from the resulting collision.

A young grey haired man stood up shakily from the spot where his leader had thrown him, scanning the dust cloud frantically. Although he was sure the Tenth was fine, it did not sit well with him that the brown haired man had once again put the safety of others over his own. But then again, that was why he had been elected as the European Union's leader.

"Juuudaaaaime!"

The dust slowly swirled sluggishly, as if mocking the gray haired man's frantic shouts.

"Be calm. I am here." A young man swathed in a cloak calmly walked out of the smoke cloud, nonchalantly dusting away slight patches of dirt from his suit with a casual gesture, acting for all the world like being attacked with a meteor sized sword was something he did on a daily basis. Overall, he looked completely fine, without even a single scratch on him.

"Juudaime! Thank goodness you're alright!" He immediately started looking around in anger, "Where is that blonde upstart! I'll teach him to attack the Tenth!"

"Don't waste your time. He already left." The brown haired man blandly interrupted his assistant.

"Tch. Bu-but Juudaime! Why did you go easy on him?! You could have beaten him easily with his level of power!"

Instead of replying his right hand man's question, the young leader looked up in the sky with a dry smile, "Neh, Gokudera."

"Hai Juudaime?"

"Don't you miss the time where everything was simple? Just us and them, where rules didn't matter because we only fought because we cared about our comrades and doing what was right?"

Gokudera scratched his chin in confusion at his leader's easy going question, "I… guess? Why?"

Slender fingers caressed the metallic gauntlet on his right hand, where a slight crack could be seen from where his _Burning Axle_ had collided with the blonde's _Final Heaven_.

Tsuna gave a dry smile at the crack. His gauntlet and cloak began to glow a bright orange, slowly dematerializing before reforming into a huge lion made out of strangely ethereal yet solid seeming orange flames. Tsuna smiled affectionately and ran a delicate finger over a barely visible, tiny crack on the lion's head armour.

"Gaoo..." the lion growled lowly and nuzzled its owner's hand just affectionately.

Gokudera sweat dropped. In contrast with its younger form, the Tenth's box Lion was so huge and bulky that it was as tall as their shoulders. It's massive jaw and fangs inspired fear and intimidation in their enemies. Yet... the moment it opened its mouth and _roared, _if you could call it that, it immediately overwhelmed anyone nearby by its sheer cuteness... How... inappropriate.

"It's nothing I guess. But that man was interesting after all. Reborn would have loved to recruit him. I wonder what kind of flame would have suited him."

"Him? But he was so weak!"

The flame eyed man grinned slightly and started walking away slowly with the Lion following him like an obedient puppy, "Hmmm? Really? You liked him, didn't you Natsu?"

"Gaoo!" It roared affirmatively with a bright glint in its orange eyes, as if anticipating another chance to knuckle down with his newest _friend._

"Hahaha, yeah, I agree with you Natsu. It was fun."

"Hu-huh? Wa-wait! You know I can't understand that overgrown furball! Aww, come on Juudaime!" the grey haired young man started chasing after his boss and his Lion.

******Broken Faith******

**Play Supercell – Utakata Hanabi**

A stealthy figure enshrouded in darkness slowly crept through a dark service tunnel, deep in Shinjuku's famous Park Hyatt hotel, carefully heading towards the highest floor where he knew his self proclaimed fiancée's father was waiting for him.

It took but a moment for him to charge up the stairs and burst through the magnificent mahogany doors into the luxurious suite with a complete lack of delicacy, "Oi! You old bastard! Where is Ayaka!?"

The suite was empty save a single person in a sharp dark blue suit with his back to Naruto, his silhouette highlighted by the lights of Shinjuku's night life as he stood straight backed, regally watching down on the masses like he owned them. Which wasn't true.

He only owned half of it.

He seemed to be holding a book that Naruto couldn't see from his point of view.

"She isn't here yet. Soon though. It seems like she managed to persuade her guards to stop somewhere first."

"What?"

The man turned around slowly to regard the intruder, gently putting down the book at the same time, "I said she will be here soon. I didn't expect my daughter's intended to be deaf."

Naruto bristled and nearly started yelling but calmed himself down almost immediately. Wryly, he thought that even years later, some of his rash tendencies had yet to wear off entirely. Instead he glanced at the book. To his surprise it was an old photo album, its pages were flipped open, showing a photograph of two blonde females. The older looked much like Ayaka, the same waterfall of golden hair and bright sea green eyes, only with a more mature and down-to-earth feel to her elegance. The younger girl was sitting on her lap, shooting a bright smile at the photographer.

It clicked and Naruto stared at the older man, curiosity replacing hostility in his sapphire eyes.

"Why?" a simple question left his lips.

The man with greying black hair seemed to understand the unspoken words, staring at the blonde silently, as if judging whether the blonde was worthy of the answer to the question he asked.

A moment passed between the two fathers.

When it broke again, the older man picked up a glass of wine and swirled it nonchalantly, but he couldn't hide the sadness and nostalgia in his tired black eyes, "I met Ayaka's mother during a business trip to Japan. At the time, my current marriage was stormy and cold so I was drawn to her passion and spirit. She was a beautiful and passionate woman despite her frail health. She absolutely refused to bow to the rules that she didn't like, even going so far as to disown herself from her family. Yayoi was a loving woman, rather than struggle with Christine for dominance; she treated her like a sister, even if those feelings were not mutual, and even embraced Ayaka's older sister like her own."

The man paused in his monologue and ran one hand through his hair tiredly, "Even through the worst of the arguments, Yayoi accepted it all and loved everyone in the family equally. You could say she was the glue that held the Yukihiro family together. Unfortunately when she passed away, it was like the spark in Ayaka had disappeared. After the funeral, she secluded herself in her room for months on an end. I was so worried, but at the time I, mistakenly now that I think about it, focused on my company to keep the pain away. Filled with regret and resentment, I couldn't even bear to face Christine, much less reprimand her actions due to her perceived victory and Ayaka because of how much she resembled her mother."

The old man set the flute of wine down without even sipping a drop, only sparing a brief glance at the photograph on his desk, "When she finally came out again, she had apparently come a conclusion all by herself; determined to be the perfect daughter that would fulfil my every expectations. To fit the mould her mother had shown her perfectly. But there was no more spark, just a mechanised drive to be the best according to the standards that she alone perceived…. She wanted to be her mother, not Ayaka Yukihiro."

He spread his hands helplessly as the blonde listened with an intense expression on his face, "I… I'm not a good father…. I can predict when the next financial crisis will happen, down the date and time, but this… this I did not know how to fix. I thought by giving her standards too high to achieve she would give up and return to the bright energetic daughter I knew…."

He sighed tiredly, "Needless to say, she not only reached those standards; she broke them completely." A large smile broke out on his lips, "Then she went to Mahora and although it was faint, she regained the spark. And though I had no hand in it, I was exceedingly glad that Ayaka Yukihiro, no, my daughter had finally returned to me."

The blonde youth listened carefully as the older man unburdened himself, he was unsure of why the straight backed man had chosen to be so frank and honest with a stranger like him, maybe it was due to the role they shared as parental figures, but the surprisingly vulnerable look on the grey haired man's visage told him that everything he had said so far was true.

"So I strove to fan that spark to burn even brighter through adversity." his reply was simply as if it explained everything.

In a way it made sense. A self made man like him did not know how to do anything other than through challenges.

Silence resumed as the old man sat down in his chair in one smooth and practiced movement. Naruto noticed that despite the topic that seemed to drain the energy from his frame, he still moved with the same regality Ayaka had in her's.

"What will you do now?"

"Nothing." He smiled wryly, "Whatever you said to my daughter, her backbone returned, enough to defy even me."

Naruto blinked and felt rather stupid, "What?"

The man smiled dryly, "I might have forgot to mention that shortly before you arrived, she somehow managed to buy my company right out from under my nose. From a shabby internet cafe no less."

He returned his gaze to the glass wall, "Then she threw the whole company back in my face, allowing me to continue to manage it under the caveat that every other Friday I am to spend at a chosen orphanage doing community service and every Saturday and Sunday is to be spent with family."

A goofy grin spread on the blonde's lips, "I think I'm in love."

Then he blinked, despite the meaning in the older man's words he sounded strangely happy.

The older man chuckled slightly, "Ah yes, the Namikaze family's third motto; _Do not mess with us unless you want to find out exactly how big of a vindictive bastard we can be_. Considering her circumstances, it** is** rather fitting."

The blonde blinked again, suddenly feeling very lost, "How did you know about that?"

"Oh please. As if I wouldn't realize a new player suddenly appearing and gobbling up more than half of the underworld while investigating all of my holdings at the same time."

Naruto floundered helplessly, "Why didn't you do anything?"

"There was no reason to. When my niece, Chizuru told me about you and Ayaka, I decided to bet on you."

Naruto peered into those sharp black eyes and decided that gambling against him probably wouldn't be very smart. Or profitable. At the same time, he decided to have a talk with Chizuru in the very near future.

"What if I failed, or if she decided to obey you anyway?" the blonde asked curiously.

"I was not worried. Sawada-san told me about you. The _Black Paladin_ who never failed." He replied calmly.

Naruto wanted to protest, to say that it wasn't fair to Ayaka for gambling like that, but his mouth opened and closed without any sound, finally he just gave in and began chuckling along with the older man.

Suddenly the moment of camaraderie was broken by the sound of wood hitting plaster explosively as the mahogany doors burst open to show a resplendently dressed Ayaka striding in as if she owned the place, fire burning in her eyes, "Otou-sama, you WILL call off Naruto's punishme- Naruto?" she skidded to a stop and halted mid sentence, jaw dropping at the sheer ridiculousness of her father and her fiancée laughing together like old friends.

"Wha-what's happening?"

"We were just talking Ayaka."

"Wha-Bu?"

Seeing the girl struggle to comprehend everything, Naruto chuckled before walking up to Ayaka and enveloping her in a tight hug, "Everything is ok now, Ayaka."

Ayaka glanced briefly over Naruto's shoulder at her father, seeing him give no outward signs of displeasure, she reluctantly returned the hug and decided to let things go until she could talk to Naruto privately.

The older man turned his seat around to give them a moment together.

"Your father isn't going to force you to get married anymore. You don't have to get married if you don't want to." He whispered to her happily.

Ayaka's sea green eyes widened and she immediately pushed him away, giving him a hurt look as she did so, "Yo-you don't want to marry me? Breaking your promise so fast?" Hurt turned to anger as she hissed at him.

"Huh? Bu-but?"

The older man who was looking out the window suppressed the undignified urge to face palm, instead he just rolled his eyes. Then again the younger man probably didn't have decades of marriage experience that would help him manoeuvre the mine field that was a woman's mind.

"Ahem."

Both blondes, one looking like someone had kicked his dog and the other somehow resembling a hissing cat, looked at him as one, ignoring their stares, he continued, "Technically I haven't called the wedding off yet."

"What?! What are you talking about Otou-sama!" the female blonde demanded loudly.

"I haven't approved off Namikaze-san." He replied succinctly, "And even if I did, there's still; the issue about your original intended, a son of one my business partners that came in order to cement a deal that would expand the Yukihiro family's influence even further. He is still waiting in one of our private suites and I cannot afford to call the wedding off over something like this; it would do irreparable damage to the Yukihiro reputation."

Ayaka winced out of habit at his stern tone before steeling herself again, "But I already called the wedding off when I took over ownership of the company." She protested calmly with a hint of steel in her tone.

The older Yukihiro smiled slyly, "Yes, yes you did. But the process was already initiated and he has already arrived. As the new owner, it wouldn't reflect very well on you if the result of your first, one sided, order caused so much chaos would it?"

"The-then what?"

The older man steepled his fingers together, "Well…. The young man is a noble from Mundus Magicus. I'm aware that they traditionally settle matters there by tests of strength." Here, his black eyes glanced briefly at the blonde man, "If your intended somehow manages to defeat him in combat, then calling off the wedding properly wouldn't be an issue any longer, would it?"

He shot a look at the young man with the hangdog look on his face that said, _'I gave you an opening, take it you dumb ass.'_

Giving a grateful nod, he stepped forward before Ayaka could say anything, "I'll do it."

"Wha? Wa… Grr… ARGH!"

The two men watched as Ayaka stomped out of the room, internally Naruto sighed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for that."

The older man nodded, "No thanks are needed. Although that wasn't just for you, it was also for me." At the confused look from Naruto, he shot a stern glare at the blonde, "I know you are also a father of sorts. As a father you will understand that I want the best for my daughter don't you?"

"Don't say such reasonable words with such a sinister smile, you old bastard."

"..."

"..."

"Ohohoho."

"Ohohohoho... my ass! Didn't you mention you already knew what I was capable off?"

"I _heard_ what the Black Paladin was capable off. Now I want to see for myself if you truly deserve my daughter. That little show earlier wasn't exactly the most convincing of arguments."

After a few moments of staring at each other, Naruto slumped in agreement with his motives. If anyone wanted to marry Akako or Chao, the man had BETTER be able to stand up to him. **Or else**.

"Very well…. Place and time?"

The older man glanced at the monitor on his table and tapped a few keys, after a few minutes of silence between them, he spoke again, "I will have a suitable place ready and warded so that you can fight as much as you want. Until then, go and assuage Ayaka." He smiled slightly, "She can be a little hot headed, emotional and stubborn at times. Just like her mother, but don't let it get you down."

Naruto nodded and spun around to chase after his fiancée but just as he was leaving he heard his name being called again, "Yes?"

"Show me what **you** can really do."

"Mah…. We'll see."

******Broken Faith******

Knock knock

"Go away!"

"Either you open the door, or I break it. Your choice."

"Go away!"

"Shame. This looks like a rather nice door."

"Go aw-BOOM!"

A tall silhouette stepped in through the wreckage of what once used to be a perfectly respectable door, sapphire eyes briefly swept around the room before finding what their owner was looking for. The shell shocked blonde girl who was sitting on her bed and staring at the kindling on the floor in disbelief.

Sighing Naruto quietly stepped over to the girl and gently sat beside her uninvited.

Ayaka glared at him and made to move but Naruto's sharp voice stopped her, "You try to run away and I'll tie you up so that you'll God damn listen to what I have to say bondage girl."

"Don't you dare! I'll scream!"

"Go ahead."

"KYAAAAAA!"

A voice from outside the door suddenly spoke, shocking Ayaka into silence, "Oh my, I seem to have gone temporarily deaf. Oh look. A ruined door. Shame, it used to be a rather nice door."

"Rob-jii san?"

Both men couldn't hide their chuckles at the disbelief in her voice.

"Oops. I accidentally ordered everyone off this floor. Have fun Ayaka-sama."

"Rob-jii san!"

Naruto sighed before reaching out to pull the furious girl into his lap, "Calm down bondage girl." He ordered her calmly yet forcefully.

Ayaka shivered at the quiet yet powerful whisper in her ear, "What? You haven't humiliated me enough?"

The other blonde sighed again, "And how did I do that?"

Ayaka growled lowly, "You said you didn't want to marry me! Everything you said last night was a complete lie. Was it because you pitied me!? Me? Th-" Her throat immediately failed to work and her brain stalled.

Naruto kissed her. His arms wound around her slender waist, crushing her body against his; enjoying their shared warmth as his lips ravaged hers. It took a while before the girl in his arms slowly closed her eyes and returned the kiss. Her lips opening slightly, inviting his tongue to dance with hers.

Seconds stretched into minutes before they finally separated, breathing rather heavily. Naruto put his forehead against hers and spoke softly, "Will you listen now?"

Ayaka averted her eyes unsurely but nodded anyway.

"I was always going to marry you. In fact I want to."

"Bu-but, you were so happy that I didn't have to get married anymore..."

"Ayaka... you are just fourteen." He grinned in a rather exasperated manner, "Of course I'm happy you don't have to marry now. You still have a world in front of you, I want you to experience life, make sure it's really WHAT you want before we truly get married. I don't want us to get together _just _because of an emergency." His eyes softened noticeably, "I'll wait for you to get ready. Marriage isn't a simple thing for me. For someone like me who had to live his childhood watching happy families from outside the window, a marriage is an incredibly important step in life. I **WANT** you to be sure, Ayaka. Not with some half baked resolve created over the span of one month and an equally half assed wedding, you don't deserve that. Both you and Chachamaru."

She blushed softly and leaned her head into the crook of Naruto's neck, "Sorry..."

"S'okay. Your father warned me."

Ayaka rolled her shimmering green eyes, "I have no idea whether it's funny or creepy that you two get along so well."

"Huh? No we don't. He's an old bastard!"

Ayaka face palmed and chose not to remind him that he was technically one as well, "Idiot."

They shared a moment of quiet together, revelling in each other's presence and soft bodies before Ayaka broke the stillness between them, "I've never liked my birthdays."

Blinking at the sudden no sequitur Naruto could only voice a quiet, "Why?"

"Because of my family, all my birthdays have always been these big huge parties. I didn't like them because they always felt so stiff and impersonal, full of posturing idiots." Ayaka slowly peered up into his eyes, "Next month, after the exams, is my birthday. Can we have a quiet one? Just a small dinner, With Chachamaru, Akako, Negi, Chizuru and Asuna?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah. Anything you want, Hime."

******Broken Faith******

Two men stood in an underground arena, one was dressed casually, in a button down shirt, jeans and black boots. His long blonde hair tied in a simple pony tail. A small, almost disbelieving smile played on his lips as he looked around like a tourist. He hadn't actually expected the older man to truly keep to his word to prepare an arena in a few hours. When word had gotten through to the couple, Naruto had been incredibly shocked to find that his fiancée's father had prepared an underground dome that was large enough to fit ten football fields and its walls spelled with enough defensive wards to rival a fortress. When he had loudly expressed his disbelief at the incredible arrangements, especially in such a short time period, he had been treated to an elaborate _'OHOHOHOHO'_ from Ayaka's father and a declaration that anything was possible for a Yukihiro.

Yeaahh... those two were definitely related. He could definitely see where the blonde girl got it from.

The man across of the room from him however, was the exact opposite. A dress robe with elaborate designs of gold dragons that covered the entirety of his body, carefully glossed white hair that fell in a shiny waterfall and his bangs carefully held up with decorative, embossed silver circlet. His face held a casual yet refined expression of haughty boredom.

"Nice to meet you."

The man opposite of him simply gave him a condescending smile similar to those from a noble royalty humouring a particularly stupid person of lower rank.

Naruto immediately decided he didn't like this prick.

That incredibly familiar haughty smile on the stranger's face immediately gave rise to a sudden yet urgent need within the blonde's chest to put his foot through said smile. Suppressing the powerful urge to follow through with the need, Naruto simply returned the gesture with a hint of mocking.

"**Basillica-sama. Namikaze-sama has challenged you for the right to claim Ayaka-sama's hand in marriage. Is this correct?"**

Both of them nodded curtly.

Ayaka gently touched his hand, giving him a strangely soft look.

He felt a different kind of smile touch his lips at the look and gave her a confident nod before following the strangely named youth down a hallway towards the dome.

*********Booth*************

In a securely shielded circular room where three people sat watching a floating screen, Ayaka gulped nervously at the tenseness but didn't have enough time to do anything else when a sharp stern voice cut through the silence of the booth, "Basillica? Basillica Anheuser? Son of Salamander Lord Anheuser?! What are you playing at Yukihiro-san!? Inviting the son of one of the leaders of Hellas' most radical faction?!"

Jumping slightly in shock, the blonde girl shifted in her seat to look behind her where a new group of people had just arrived. Her eyes widened even further in shock as she realized that amongst the newcomers was the familiar bearded, bushy browed face of Mahora Academy's Dean, Konoe Konoemon.

The man in greying black hair didn't bother to turn around, simply acknowledging the Dean's words with a casual nod however before the Dean could ask for more information, they were interrupted by the referee speaking again.

******Booth******

"**Very well. Nothing else need be said. There will be no fatal attacks. Everything else is allowed. Good Luck to both combatants."**

And just like that, the elderly butler went silent, leaving both combatants to measure each other with piercing stares but it was the white haired man who spoke first, "How much do you want?"

Naruto blinked, "Excuse me?"

The white haired man rolled his golden slit-pupiled eyes in a bored fashion, "We both know you cannot win. You are but a normal mage from Mundus Vetus. Someone of that mere calibre cannot win against dragon folk from Mundus Magicus. Especially not one of the legendary Vritra bloodline. So just name your price so that we can both go home faster."

"Ah... Sorry. As far as I'm concerned, you can offer me Mundus Magicus itself, and it still isn't worth more than her pinky. Instead I'd like to give you a counter offer."

The blonde would never know that listening spells had been cast on the arena so that everybody that was watching them in the private booth could hear everything that was being said in the arena, or at least not until later, and that a certain blonde girl sitting in the viewing booth was currently blushing brighter then the setting sun.

"Oh?"

"I was going to give you a minute, but considering your attitude. I'll give you 30 seconds."

His opponent quirked a refined eyebrow, "30 seconds of what?"

Naruto smiled benignly, "I don't want to fight you. So please give up before then. If you do not, I will be forced to end the match."

The noble bristled slightly but otherwise showed no outwards reaction yet the anger in his words were unmistakable, "Someone of your stature should not presume to impose limits on someone like me. Besides no matter how good looking that wench is, is she worth the gold I can give you?"

**Play Chemistry (FMA OP) - Period**

Naruto shrugged, "You can be the prince, the Queen, or the King himself, heck you can even be the God of Mundus Magicus, and I still wouldn't give a shit."

He leaned backwards to evade a swift blow and began to backflip away from repeated claw swipes.

30. 29.

"Really? Attacking without a warning?"

"You don't deserve one."

28. 27.

"So uh..." he dodged a powerful punch, "What's the difference between you and say... that Dragon underneath Mahora? Can it talk as well?"

The so called dragon folk noble growled, "Do not mistake us for a dumb beast like that."

26. 25. 24.

Naruto jumped away from another ridiculously powerful kick from above, sure the pretty boy was powerful, but he fought with delicate, useless movements and over the top flourishing gestures, "Yeah, yeah, so what's the difference? Other than the fact that... you don't remotely look like a dragon. You know, wings, tails, claws."

23. 22. 21.

A powerful spiked tail exploded out of the back of the white haired youth's spine and instantly wrapped around an airborne Naruto's foot, the white haired man's fake smile gained a hint of malice as his circlet slowly turned into huge ivory horns, "You want horns, tails and claws?"

20. 19. 18.

The tail around his foot aggressively swung Naruto around like a rag doll, slamming the blonde into the ground before dragging his limp body to hand upside down in front of the haughty draconic man.

Bleary sapphire eyes came eye to eye with golden slit-pupilled ones, "Is that different enough for you, commoner?" the malice in his smile grew tenfold, "Don't worry about your precious Ayaka-sama. I'll treat her _extremely _well. She'll be a good addition to my sex slaves."

17. 16... **Screw 30 seconds.**

Basillica drew back one arm and punched right through the blonde's torso, tearing through in a spray of blood and meat.

Rather than the painful screams he expected, the body hanging from his tail simply smiled, _'Doton : Bakuhatsu Bunshin'_

"**One."**

Then the body slowly thickened like rock and mud around the arm in its torso, "Wha-what are you?" Rather than replying, the rock like face gave the most sadistic smile its rocky face could manage shortly before violently exploding at point blank range.

Barely managing to bring his free hand up in order to protect his eyes, the white haired man screamed as he was pelted by a flurry of super heated rock shrapnel, the only reason he wasn't immediately turned into Swiss cheese was because of his skin's scale like resistance granted to him by his draconian heritage.

Roaring angrily, the half dragon, half man spun around, looking for his adversary.

The sound of bone cracking alerted him to the blonde's position, "You know, from the moment I saw you, I realized you were just another idiot that the old bastard tricked into fighting me so that I could satisfy his curiosity. I really wasn't going to hurt you _that _badly. Then you had to go and insulted Ayaka."

Right below him.

"**Start running you worthless fuck. It's time I teach you what money can't. How reality really works."**

Looking downwards, his eyes immediately widened at the couching blonde's mouth cracked again and his jaw completely unhinged, _'Katon : Enraiha no Jutsu'_

Desperately, he swung a fist powered by lightning, hitting the blonde's face at the same time that a massive burst of dangerously beautiful white fire bloomed from the blonde's jaws collided face first with the humanoid dragon's face, the subsequent detonation was powerful enough to rock the entire dome, leaving behind a smoke cloud that obscured everything.

A smoking figure was thrown clear out of the smoke, landing roughly. His entire top was gone, leaving only his ragged trousers and smoking but undamaged skin. Another dark figure with a bruised cheek dashed out of the smoke, continuing his relentless barrage while blocking a knee strike and twisting mid combo to catch a clawed hand by the wrist while his right hand swung like a whip at the captured shoulder joint.

Golden eyes widened mid swing as he realized that the air in front of the knife hand strike was shimmering slightly, the half dragon immediately reacted and caught the hand with his tail, barely stopping the invisible blade from piercing the lesser armoured skin under his armpit and slicing his entire arm off. Angrily growling, he swung his free hand out in a elbow strike that cracked the blonde's shoulder. Ignoring the sound and pain, Naruto fluidly switching combos, the crouching blonde pivoted, snapping the wrist in his hand and throwing the heavy dragon over his shoulders onto the floor, _'Suiton : OniGeki no Jutsu'_

A cloud of vapour formed above his head, forming a massive hammer that the blonde grasped by its handle to swing around with. Naruto swung the massive yet weightless hammer, the earth rumbled with each powerful strike, crushing the dragon's body deeper and deeper into the ground mercilessly with each swing.

"Gwooooh!"

The white haired man exploded upwards, destroying the hammer and charging at the blonde and began attacking him with a barrage of fists, tail lashes and kicks, all at the same time. Naruto momentarily froze, allowing Basillica to land a powerful blow on his abdomen but 8 hands suddenly grabbed his attacker's limbs, stopping his charge cold. Golden eyes widened incredulously at the sight of an extra 6 silvery metallic limbs sprouting out of the blonde's shoulders, then they widened even further as the grinning blonde's chest slowly opened like a hideous Venus flytrap, showing a massive sideways jaw with silvery fangs.

'_Raiton : Niruida Gian no Jutsu'_

Two massive thunderbolts exploded from both jaws, hitting his chest in two spots at point blank range. This time, unlike the earlier fire technique which had barely any effect on his dragon scale like skin, the thunderbolts pierced his chest like hot knife through butter, sizzling the tender flesh underneath armour like skin.

Coughing blood, the formerly dignified noble managed to leap and kick the blonde in the face with his free leg before stumbling backwards. In front of him, unfazed by the kick, Naruto's extra 6 hands slowly retreated into the blonde's shoulder again.

'_Konbi Jutsu : Murakumo no Ken'_

The swaying man barely noticed the yellow flashes all around him, what he did notice was the feel of invisible blades cutting him all over his body, hamstringing him painfully and near fatally. His torn and abused body fell flat on its face with a wet splat.

***********Booth*************

Up in the booth the Dean began chuckling, "Now that was new. I was unaware that he was capable of using all the elements like that, nor his abilities to form extra... errr... limbs. Although, is there a reason he isn't using his pactios?"

The man sitting beside him nodded slightly, "I requested that he use only his own powers, not those that others have bestowed upon him. That lightning attack in particular was rather... effective. Crude, but effective."

Another man spoke up as he petted a Lion made of flickering yet solid flames, the lion somehow watching the ensuing fight with glittering eyes, "In our fight he mentioned that it was a new ability thought it's not very surprising. I get the impression that Naruto-san is the kind to play his cards close to the chest. That Cloud Gathering Sword of his was exceedingly formidable. I doubt I could have countered it in its entirety."

Black eyes glittered in approval, "It seems this fight is over. Shall we?"

The two men sitting to his sides chuckled, "It is barely over yet Yukihiro-san. You underestimate Basillica-san too much. The dragon boy, despite his boasting is still the Salamander Lord's son and dragon folk are renowned for their high speed regeneration, powerful defensive scales, attack power as well as stamina."

"Oh?"

A loud roar rung throughout the entire chamber, resonating even within their viewing chambers without the help of the screen.

"PAPA! Behind you!" a female voice screamed.

***********Booth*************

Back in the arena, where a weary Naruto had begun walking back to the exit until he felt a shadow start to cover him, sweat dropped.

"I've got something really big and angry behind me isn't it?" He asked no one in particular and sighed just as a massive paw smashed him straight into the ground with ridiculous amounts of power and speed.

An furious roar shook the chamber as a fully formed, massive black dragon began repeatedly churning the ground with its serrated claws, each one of them the size of a small bus, completely focused on tearing his offender into shredded meat before finishing his rampage off with a massive burst of crimson dragon fire.

The fire flooded the entire chamber, obscuring everything from view save the dragon's 50 foot tall silhouette as it roared triumphantly.

Then it gave an undignified yelp as something grabbed its tail and began swinging the 20 tonne dragon around like a sack of potatoes, that something grunted and released the tail at the pinnacle of his swing, throwing the massive dragon through the air before crashing into the side of the dome with a massive cracking sound as the entire wall crumbled under its weight before burying the black dragon underneath a rock slide regardless of what defensive spells that had been cast on the now charred black stone construct.

***********Booth*************

As the fire began to clear, Ayaka's father began laughing loud and long, "Ayaka! Was this your idea? A white knight fighting alone against a black dragon for his princess?"

The princess in question merely blushed and sent the green haired gynoid beside her an apologetic glance. Chachamaru simply nodded and reached over to gently squeezed the blonde girl's hand with jointed fingers, eliciting a surprised look from the blonde girl.

She had been expecting anger, even resentment but not comfort from the green haired girl.

"We will talk later."

Ayaka felt her throat clam up, and it was all she could do to nod in response.

***********Booth*************

**Play ZONE – Secret Base **

The mountain of rocks began trembling as Basillica in complete berserker mode began trashing madly underneath the weight, it didn't take long for the massively powerful dragon to explode out of its makeshift grave and start advancing on the small figure clad in white armour and a red cape.

_It didn't hurt. _

_Since when was his opponent so weak?_

Sapphire eyes peered at his armoured arm from behind his visors with a sweat drop, wondering how in the world this particular costume had saved itself as part of Akane's pactio. He didn't have long to think as he deflected a massive serrated claw, the serrated edge screeching dissonantly against his massive silver blade as he did so. Skidding slightly from the massive strength of the attack, Naruto nonetheless held his ground and only spared the fire burning in the dragon's throat a single glance before leaping up. The sword in his hands split into two distinctive parts that he began swinging like a whirlwind on the way down, slashing the dragon's nose and neck. On the way down, he threw a blade like a javelin, wounding its eye and deflecting the river of flames from his landing spot.

_Light._

_Too light. _

_His sword was light._

The moment he landed, he began dashing forwards as the swords split again, throwing another blade to distract the massive dragon, he began slashing at the dragon's ankle to hamstring it with minimal success.

_He had almost forgotten how light he had felt, all those years ago, fighting with Akane by his side._

Thus began a process where he threw a blade every now and then and attacked whatever vulnerable part while the dragon was distracted. Naturally it didn't take long for him to come down to his last blade. The other six were scattered all around the dome before he found himself staring down a pissed near legendary creature.

_Tsunayoshi had been right. He was selfish, he wanted Ayaka to be happy, and yet he didn't want to let her go either, laws and principles be damned. _

_That's right. This resolve, he had been through so many complex situations, so caught up in getting resurrected and adapting, in the festivals where everybody's motives had been murky at best, in defying a direct order from Sawada-san..._

_All he wanted was for Ayaka, no not just Ayaka, for all his precious people to be happy, and right now, the way to achieve that was through this moving wall made of reptilian scales and muscles._

_It was that simple. There was no complex situations this time._

"Meh." Blue eyes looked up in the general direction of the ceiling where he realized a small floating orb had been watching the whole match. "Oi, old bastard. You can hear me right?"

Sapphire eyes closed under the hood, and he relaxed his posture, feeling the weight slowly lessen as his breath slowly fell into a steady rhythm. The world around him slowed down and gained a clarity he had nearly forgotten.

_He stopped caring about being selfish._

Not bothering to wait for a reply he continued, "You wanted to see my full power right?" he thrust the sword in his hand into the ground and grinned as each blade embedded deep into the concrete walls began resonating with the one in his hand with a low deep thrum, glowing with an unearthly light. He knew from above, the positions of each sword would show up like the points of a hexagon from above, with him in the centre.

_He would do what he wanted. _

_He would make sure that Ayaka was happy._

_He would not let any of his precious ones go either._

_He would settle for nothing less. _

_That was the way the person named Naruto Uzumaki had always done things; even if everybody else called him foolish, naive and stupid._

"**Nihil et Regnum, Burst Mode."**

The glow brightened even further.

Then they disappeared completely like a light that had been put out, with the darkness came a new feeling, an unnatural heaviness in the atmosphere that hadn't been present earlier.

In the booth, several people began to shake in their seats as the pressure could be felt from even there.

"**This... is what I like to call stage one."**

A huge solid brilliant gold aura began forming around the knight, slowly settling into a vaguely humanoid form with nine flicking solid gold tails and two large curved horns. From the screens, they could hear the sounds of bone cracking underneath the knight's armour.

The massive pressure doubled. Konoe's old wrinkled fingers closed tightly around his knobbly stick, just when he thought the ridiculous amount of pressure could go no higher, it tripled.

Naruto groaned as he felt his bones roiling, stretching underneath his skin, before speaking again, **"This... is stage two."**

The brilliant gold aura flared and exploded into a magnificent yet somehow ethereal monster fox that stood on two bipedal feet, towering over the dragon. Its snout looked vaguely canine, its grinning jaw filled with massive ivory fangs, two massive curved horns scratched and gouged the ceiling as the ethereal yet solid monster moved. Each step it took shook the entire arena like an earthquake.

Floating in its centre, barely visible through the thick golden aura was Naruto, still clad in his armour.

In the viewing booth, Konoemon dropped to his knees under the sheer pressure and the screens began to crack from the monster's very presence.

"Konoemon, you alright?"

"Yes-yes, I'm alright Sawada-san, but th-this is incredible, th-this has gone so far past any human limits that..." he was rendered speechless by Naruto's next words.

"**And this. Is stage three."**

The gold aura vanished. The pressure vanished. The huge brilliant gold demon disappeared, leaving two gigantic indents in the concrete where it had been standing.

The only thing left was Naruto, a thin golden aura around him and two large curved horns sprouting from the top of the helmet, nine golden furred tails lazily flicked in the air behind him, streamlined and yet somehow felt utterly lethal. Only they weren't wavering or ethereal anymore, they were flesh and blood, completely physical. The formerly ethereal quality that the monster had had was completely gone.

The horns, tails and fangs, looked completely solid, only they were now human sized.

The being stretched as he looked at his glowing hand in nostalgia, this form was the embodiment of his and Akane's bond.

A form that he had been unable to successfully activate since her passing.

Then he briefly disappeared before reappearing underneath the dragon's jaw with one hand outstretched and casually finger flicked the dragon's chin.

Contrary to everybody's expectations, that small move somehow managed to propel the dragon straight up into the air as if a giant had punched its jaw with all its strength. A small glowing figure, barely a fraction of the dragon's size suddenly phased into existence above the dragon.

"**Clench those pretty teeth Dragon, all the gold in the world isn't going to stop this from hurting a little."**

He cocked his head back, and everybody winced as two massive horns caved in the dragon's skull.

******Broken Faith******

**Omake**

**Vindictive Bastard.**

"Oi, Naruto. Where are you?!" a gruff voice echoed in the seemingly empty wooden cabin until the visitor heard a muffled grunt answer his call.

"In here, Kichi." A voice softly called out.

Quirking one eyebrow, the tall, bulky man slowly manoeuvred his way through the empty house to a slightly open door at the very back of the hall before slowly easing it open with one huge hand.

Inside the room was Naruto sitting on a couch, a pair of glasses perched on his nose as he read a scroll. The reason he had not come to answer the door in person became evident in the form of a small yukata clad girl snoozing on his chest, snuffling quietly as her two tails slowly flicked back and forth in time with Naruto's free hand stroking her long fiery hair.

He lifted one finger to his lips and motioned the large man into the room, "Is there something wrong? It's rare for you to come all the way down here." He said quietly, trying not to disturb the girl sleeping on his chest.

Gamakichi gave a dry grin at the scene, he had never thought that the rash and dumb blonde that he had met nearly 500 years ago, would look so at home with his adopted daughter sleeping on his chest, while he read a book, "You actually look half intelligent with those glasses on."

Naruto shrugged carefully, "I never realized it until Negi brought it up, apparently I am suffering from something called long sighted. I always thought that I hated books so much that I couldn't read, turns out reading is kinda fun when you can actually see the words for once. Anyway you haven't answered my question." Naruto fixed his old friend with an expectant stare.

The man nodded, "We have a problem. One of our competitors refused to start negotiating until they meet our leader, in other words, you. Something about honour and reason," the huge man frowned, "Yakuza are so pretentious nowadays."

Naruto nodded slowly as he considered the situation, "What was the deal about?"

Kichi slowly leaned against the wall and folded his arms, "They are one of the few local yakuza groups left with enough influence left to block our advance in Kanto. The deal was to ensure we get trade priority with them in exchange for leaving their territory alone."

The blonde gave a wry smile, "Looks like I don't have much a choice then." He motioned at the girl on his chest, "You wanna have her for a moment while I get ready?"

The huge man smirked, and with uncharacteristic gentleness, softly lifted the sleeping girl into his arms, cradling her. He couldn't help but smile as the small girl curled into a tight ball and nuzzled his chest softly, emitting small and content purring sounds from her throat.

Naruto only grinned at the somewhat out of place scene despite knowing Kichi was one of the gentlest men he knew around children, as he quickly got ready. It didn't take long for the blonde to hurry out of the room with a deep crimson haori with black flame patterns decorating the bottom hanging on his shoulder.

"I'm ready."

The tall dark blue haired man blinked owlishly, "We're bringing Akako along?"

Naruto made a face, "Negi and the rest are preparing for their finals and I don't want to leave Akako at home alone."

"Clone?"

"We-well I thought Akako would like to play with Gamashiro and the rest," Seeing the blonde blush slightly and avert his eyes, Kichi gave an amused grunt, knowing that the blonde didn't want to let his daughter out of his sight, and they made for the teleporter Naruto had set up between their Headquarters in Kyoto and Mahora Academy at the back of the wooden cabin.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto kept his expression carefully neutral and his posture rigid, hiding his distaste for the obese person across the table from him. From the start, the obese man, Nabou Koryuu, a well known leader of one of Kanto Yakuza factions had given him the impression of a forgettable, oily snake, the fact that he was dressed in an acid green suit, did not help the imagery.

The blonde had no idea how this... rat had even managed to weasel his way into the faction's leadership, probably by whining at everyone until they died of a broken blood vessel, he thought more than a little unkindly at the smaller man. Nonetheless, as annoying as the man was, he still held a position of great importance and the gateway to the Kanto region's underworld was strictly monitored by his group to reduce competition.

At that moment, with the same tinny confrontational voice in his ears that had been grating on his nerves for the past 5 hours, it was like the little man existed for the sole purpose of trying to annoy Naruto and the blonde was tempted to just throw a Rasenshuriken in his direction and call it a training accident. Fortunately, the negotiation was nearly complete, although the blonde realized that he had been forced to concede a lot more ground than expected in order to placate the Japanese mafia, Naruto silently berated himself, knowing that this had only happened because he was more concerned about getting out of hearing range rather than actually bargaining for a good position.

Which was probably the point, he internally reflected. It was a dirty, but certainly viable tactic.

"Papa?" a small voice called out from behind the shoji.

Naruto immediately felt lighter, and his back straightened, "Akako? What's wrong?"

"Papa still busy?" two wide ruby eyes peeked through the crack in the shoji, and Naruto could immediately tell that she was pouting at him, "Want to play~"

"What is the meaning of this?"

Naruto blinked, and tried to let a blood vessel burst at the unpleasant interruption, "I apologize. This is my daughter Akako."

The chubby man slowly got up and dawdled over to the shoji, opening it roughly to reveal a surprised Akako, who immediately scampered behind Naruto, clinging to the back of his red haori. Smiling softly, the blonde reached behind him to pet his daughter and calm her down.

"Hmph, little children should be seen and not heard. This is not the place for a brat," his condescending tone changed for the worse as the tubby man leaned forward with a leer at the cowering girl, "Though, how old did you say she was again? Give it a few years and she will be an absolute... **prize**."

Naruto froze. He decided that he didn't like the way the small fat man was emphasizing the word _prize._

It took him a few seconds to force his face into a stiff smile, "I'm sorry, I think you better go."

"What!? We haven't even had a drink yet!"

**"Please. Leave."** Naruto restated with a steely glint in his eyes.

The chubby black haired man immediately staggered backwards before stumbling out of the room with a high pitched, "Yo-you'll regret this!"

Naruto stayed frozen until he was sure that the man's pathetic energy signature had completely left the ground before picking a quivering Akako up and cuddling her, "It's ok. That bad man won't come again. I'll make sure of it."

The small red haired girl nodded tearily, "Why don't you go find Shiro? I heard he has some sweets."

Her terrified expression was immediately replaced by a greedy one as she scampered off to find her latest target. Naruto decided he'd apologize to Gamashiro later with a particularly nice helping of cake.

"Well... that didn't go well."

"Hummm..." Naruto hummed quietly in thought for a moment before nodding coldly and unhesitatingly, "Buy out his entire holdings. Do anything it takes."

The tall man that had slid into the meeting room didn't bother to argue but he did scratch his chin carefully, "You sure? It'll set our long term goals back by quite a bit."

"Do it." Naruto ordered firmly, "And once you are done, make sure that the only job Nabou will ever get in Japan ever again is as a janitor."

A crooked smirk appeared on the tall man's lips, "I was hoping you'd do something like that. Anything else?"

Naruto nodded sharply, "Jot down today's date. For the rest of his life, I want you to send him a cake shaped like a brick on this day. A little reminder that he should learn how to keep his mouth shut." Naruto paused and added something else in an offhand tone, "Throw in a bar of soap as well. I don't think I've ever met such a greasy individual."

Kichi left the room howling with laughter.

******Broken Faith******

**Author's Note**

**Doton : Bakuhatsu Bunshin – Earth Release : Exploding Clone**

**Katon : Enraiha no Jutsu – Fire Release : Supreme Blaze Technique**

**Suiton : OniGeki no Jutsu – Water Release : Giant Hammer Technique**

**Raiton : Niruida Gian no Jutsu – Lightning Release : Double False Darkness**

**Konbi Jutsu : Murakumo no Ken - Combination Jutsu : Cloud Gathering Blade**

**Nihil et Regnum; Burst Mode – Empty Throne; Burst Mode**

******Broken Faith******

Yes, rather short chapter compared to my usual standards, but it does give a good end to the Ayaka Arc and I didn't want to continue since I would only get to briefly touch on the next arc. Not something I want to do. Not to mention, it'll help me get back in the groove for the usual 11-13k chapters again. The trouble i had with this chapter was mostly cos I was undecided on whether to make Ayaka's father a bastard or at least more sympathetic.

Cheers for coin flipping o^o

Look forward to the next chapter, where we finally kick off the Mundus Magicus Arc.

Oh and don't forget to review~


	29. Tears

**Broken Faith Chapter 29**

**Tears**

**Disclaimer : Don't own anything.**

18 reviews. Wow. Just… wow. Though, that's probably because the Negima manga ended huh? Not much interest here anymore. Anyway, this is a short chapter.

I'm damn sure you'll find out why. I can already hear the screams of despair as people rage at me.

Ah. Joy.

**Soundtrack List**

**Genesis of Aquarion – Pride – Nageki no Tabi**

**Play Utada Hikaru – First Love **

******Broken Faith******

"Three…. Two…. One, aaahh."

"Ah…. Ayaka-san… I can feed myself." Negi muttered dejectedly, unfortunately for him, his argument was completely ignored.

Akako simply grinned happily and opened her mouth as Ayaka fed her a croquette, complete with a sparkling, motherly aura and stars in her eyes as she drifted away into her own world. Everyone sweat dropped at how happy she looked just being allowed to baby the small kitsune and her classroom teacher. Akako had absolutely no problem in letting the newest member of her family do so. Meanwhile her uncle who was seated on Ayaka's other side looked absolutely mournful as the blonde girl insisted on feeding both him and the small red haired girl.

On the other side of the table, a blonde man looked around for something, "Pass the soya sauce please."

"Here. Ah, we're nearly out." Chachamaru muttered as she passed Naruto the small bottle.

Naruto waved his hand, "I'll get it later when I go out for a walk."

"Papa~ I want to come too!"

"Don't forget to bring the list with you. We're running out of mayonnaise for Akako as well."

In between Naruto and Chachamaru, a tick started running along Evangeline's jaw as she began with a deceptively calm voice, "Naruto."

"Mmmf?"

"Why do we have another freeloader here? Actually why the heck are all of of you acting like a normal family having dinner!?"

The blonde immediately focused on his food again, careful not to meet Chachamaru's eyes, "I uh… tried to protest but… they apparently came to an agreement of which I have no idea what the details are."

"What…?"

He pointed to the person seated on Evangeline's other side.

Evangeline slowly looked up into Chachamaru's ominous visage, complete with glinting steely eyes, **"Is there a problem Master? Naruto?"**

The small vampire immediately winced and mimicked Naruto by instantly focusing on her plate, trying to swallow the lump in her throat that had absolutely nothing to do with the delicious croquettes, "Ah… nothing... nothing…" under her breath, she mumbled lowly so that only her adopted brother could hear her, "She's scary."

Equally as quiet so that the others at the dining table didn't hear him, Naruto commiserated, "I know."

"This is all somehow your fault, corrupting my servant like that," Evangeline replied and kicked him under the table.

Naruto cried crocodile tears, "I know. I know."

A small weight climbed on to his lap, and a precocious Akako patted his cheeks with her tiny hands, "Papa, why are you crying?"

"These croquettes are too delicious that's why." Naruto blatantly lied.

"Un!" She shoved one into his mouth, "Ayaka-kaa chan made them!"

On the other side of the table, the aforementioned blonde girl was positively started swooning much to Negi's despair.

It usually meant she would try to baby him and Akako even more. Or worse, try to bath him.

Again.

"Wasn't the wedding called off? I thought you told them it was too fast?" Evangeline hissed at the blonde beside her with an elbow nudge.

"Oh he did." Ayaka interrupted them with a sweet smile that dripped with menace, "People who propose to a pure innocent maiden like me without Chachamaru's go ahead, then trying to get out of it, don't have a right to talk like a human being. Neh, Chachamaru? Namikaze-san? Don't grow up to be like that trash, ok Negi-sensei?"

"Absolutely." The gynoid who was dressed in her usual elegant yukata replied with a smirk and a cup of hot tea in her hands.

"Gurk… Yes dear…"

"Hai…"

"Geez, grow some balls." the resident vampire muttered at the ninja that currently looked like a textbook example of a henpecked husband.

"**Oh my, I'm sorry, but did I hear you say something Evangeline-san?" **The loli vampire swallowed the lump in her throat at the calm yet murderous aura coming from the supposedly harmless 14 year old girl and frantically shook her head.

"How do they do that? It's freaking scary." She muttered under her breath.

"I know." The blonde replied while he was crying a river of tears.

******Broken Faith******

Naruto sympathetically patted a thoroughly traumatized Negi on the back as they sat in a small cove on the beach inside Evangeline's resort, having gone looking for a place to rest, or hide depending on who you asked, while the women started cleaning up the dishes after dinner.

"Sniff sniff, I'm a child that needs to be fed and bathed anymore…"

"Uh… well…. just endure it?"

"Endure it? Iincho is getting worse and worse! She's going to be carrying milk bottles around with her soon!" Negi asked incredulously.

Naruto grinned stupidly, suppressing the urge to laugh causing Negi to deadpan dryly, "You're not helping Nii-san. Besides what about you? From what I've seen today, I'm starting to think married life is gonna suck. And this is just the first time we're having a family dinner."

"Maa…." Naruto scratched his chin thoughtfully, "I never really had a family before this, so watching Chachamaru, Ayaka and Akako be so happy, somehow feels worth it, even if we know that this is nothing but a mere pretence in reality. Rather than having to defy them, this warm fluffy feeling, I want to protect it. And it's not like they are serious, it's just their way of punishing me for being so indecisive and compulsive I guess. When the time comes, I know I can always count on them."

Negi made a complicated face, "I wonder if my parents were like that…"

Naruto grinned and patted his head, "From what I saw of your dad, I'll bet they were a really loving couple."

Unknown to the Springfield brothers, two certain individuals in Magicus Mundus began sneezing their heads off.

"Yooo! This is where you guys were eh?" a holler from the stairs caught the brothers' attention.

Negi instantly brightened up, "Kotarou! What are you doing here? Did you need me for something?"

"Nah, not you." Kotarou came to a stop in front of Naruto and stood at attention with pride, "I want Naruto-nii san to give me some training!"

Naruto quirked one eyebrow while Negi's jaw dropped, "I thought Kaede was helping you."

"How did you know about that?" Kotarou asked curiously, before shaking it off like a dog would to water, "Nevermind that, Kaede-nee san's busy doing all that boring bookish stuff with that stupid exam coming up soon. So she told me to ask you and consider it as a favor to her."

"You do realize you have that same exam soon right?" Naruto replied wryly, "You are so going to fail."

"As if you're one to talk. I have yet to see you stay awake in a single class." Negi muttered under his breath.

"Meh, not important. Anyway, I can't train you until I know what Kaede has taught you so far."

"Ehhh…. How can I do that?"

Naruto grinned as he noticed someone toddling her way down the stairs towards them, "Easily. A spar of course. Use everything you've learnt so far."

Kotarou grinned excitedly and got in to a ready position with his claws out and arms hanging loosely, "What? That's easy; I'll beat you up with everything I've learnt!"

He burst forward with a spurt of incredible speed only to be brought to an abrupt stop by Naruto's fist, "Ouch... ouch… what was that for!?"

"Don't be so impatient, you idiot. I didn't say I would be your opponent." Naruto calmly retorted.

"Then who? Negi?"

The blonde ninja just pointed to a point behind Kotarou.

"Eh? Who?" Kotarou spun around, only to find a timid looking flame haired girl that he recognized as the small quiet Kitsune youkai that was always around the blonde for some reason, "You? Neh, are you sure Naruto-nii san? I don't wanna hurt her by accident."

As kotarou spoke, he realized that Negi, who was slightly behind Naruto had begun to frantically shake his head and motion at something with his fingers.

"Oh don't worry. If you don't take this seriously, someone will definitely get hurt." He paused to shoot the wolf boy a strange smile, "And it won't be her."

"What do you mea…." Kotarou immediately stopped speaking with a stunned stupid look on his face and gulped as he felt cold steel touch his Adam's apple, drawing a trickle of blood.

A tiny weight plopped itself onto his shoulders.

Fast… he hadn't noticed her slip under his guard at all until she had literally climbed into his shoulders and put a knife to his neck.

"First blood goes to Akako." Naruto casually said as he pulled out a scrolls and a pair of glasses, "By the way, don't kill him Akako. Or at least make sure we can put him back together without too much trouble afterwards."

"Hai, papa!" a cheery voice chirped in response next to Kotarou's canine ears.

"I object," Kotarou said weakly, "Small girls shouldn't be played with knives and I don't hit girls."

Judging by the way the girl yanked on his dog ears, she obviously wasn't pleased.

"Oh crap. Negggiiii…. Haaalp!"

The teacher in question had pulled out his own book and plopped himself next to Naruto, studiously ignoring the fact that his adopted niece was repeatedly trying to disembowel his friend with a ridiculously sharp butter knife that she had pulled out of nowhere, when he realized something with a start, "Kotarou!"

"What is it Negi!?"

"Some friendly advice; that's not the only sharp thing she has."

"What?" Kotarou asked stupidly and spun around in time to see the small fox girl suddenly holding a lot more knives than one, "GAHHHH! My TAIL! What the heck! Where did all those come from!?"

"You really should start trying to stop her from spending so much time with Chachazero." Negi observed blandly.

His brother gave him a pointed look, "You want to try telling her that yourself? I'll even bring the sellotape for you to reattach whatever limb she decided to cut off you."

"Good point."

They both went back to their reading, disturbed only by the occasional sounds of flesh squelching and Kotarou screaming like a girl.

"Ne-neh… nii-san…"

Naruto looked up lazily and squinted at his self proclaimed little brother, "What is it? Why do you look so nervous?"

"I… I talked to Asuna-san yesterday."

Negi winced as Naruto's expression immediately went as flat as stone, already realizing that there was going to be a problem between the red head and the blonde, "I told her that I wanted to go to Mundus Magicus, and asked her to come with me as well." He made a complicated expression, "I thought you would come as well, but you are just going to avoid her aren't you?"

Naruto grimaced but stayed calm, "I am not going to do that."

"Then what are you going to do?"

A small weight suddenly crawled itself onto his lap, causing Naruto to jerk in surprise. Looking downwards, he realized a pouting Akako who had just lost her match after her entire arsenal of knives had been taken away from her, had curled up into a sulking ball on his lap.

A panting, tired, scratched, sliced and cut up Kotarou slowly walked up to them, "I beat Akako, Naruto-nii san! What next?"

Naruto smiled softly as he stroked the small girl's hair, her sulky pout was so irresistibly adorable, "Go break something."

Kotarou stared at him unblinkingly and replied with a flat, "What?"

The blonde waved his hand vaguely in the direction of some rocks, "Break that boulder, no KI, just your own muscle strength. And by break, I mean shatter it into nothing but dust with one hit."

"Wha-?"

"Shoo, shoo. Let me know when you're done." He turned back to Negi as a grumbling Kotarou walked away. He stroked a sulking Akako's hair introspectively, "At any rate, I… have a summer job in Mundus Magicus. So I will at least be somewhere around."

"Summer job? Wait, before that, don't avoid the question, what are you going to do about Asuna-san!? You can just leave this like that."

Naruto's lips slanted into a helpless growl, "It's not a good time Negi, rushing in to talk to her now is will only make things worse, besides I need to talk with Ayaka first. I'm pretty sure Chachamaru and Konoka don't care either way. In fact, they'll probably be happy."

"With the way Ayaka is acting, she won't care WHAT you say, to her, you and her all but legally married anyway." Negi muttered lowly before glaring at him, "Still…. Are you going to keep running away? You were the one that told me a man shouldn't keep stringing a woman along, and tell her everything straight out."

"I'm not running. I'm waiting for something." He retorted calmly.

"Naruto! I did it!"

The blonde distractedly pointed in a random direction; coincidentally at a boulder triple the size of the one Kotarou had just broken, "Break that one now."

"GYAAH!"

On Naruto's lap, the kitsune girl grinned and stuck her tongue out at the wolf boy.

"Tsk." Negi closed his book with finality and slowly stood up, "I never thought you were such a coward, or such a selfish person. Why do you keep thinking only of having Asuna-san as a couple if you cannot show her the kind of love she deserves? And you even already have Chachamaru, Konoka and Ayaka-san don't you? That's even more unfair isn't it?"

The scroll in Naruto's hand creaked under the pressure as he watched his brother stride away with a frown. Feeling incredibly conflicted, especially after having his ten year old brother chew him out about his love life. He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly, "Why are you suddenly so wise only when it comes to me?" he muttered tiredly to himself, "You idiot. Take care of your own problems before you try to lecture me."

"Naruto-nii san! I DID IT!"

Pushing his troubled feelings aside, he looked at the boulder, "What are you talking about? It's still there."

"Huh?"

He pointed at the shattered boulder, "I'm not talking about that," he moved his finger, "I'm talking about THAT."

Kotarou followed where he was pointing until he saw a rocky cliff that continued to stretch up into the sky.

"EEEH!? That's not a boulder! That's a frigging MOUNTAIN!"

"Yeah, break it. As in shatter it to dust with one hit."

******Broken Faith******

"As…."

"As…na…"

"Asuna-san!"

The red headed girl immediately started and looked around 3-A's classroom in a daze, "I... I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

Negi watched her with concern, "Are you alright? I just told you that Naruto proposed to Ayaka and won't be coming with us to Mundus Magicus then you went all weird."

The fact that her overly serious homeroom teacher neglected to add the customary Nii-san to Naruto's name did not fail to grab Asuna's attention, she tried to smile, but only succeeded to create a weak one, "You.. You don't have to fight with him over me you know. I'm alright, he is a free man after all, he can do what he wants. Choosing Ayaka over me is normal after all."

The smile wavered slightly.

"NO! Naruto is at fault here, I don't care what either of you say, he didn't even have the courtesy to come and tell it to you in person."

A true smile lit Asuna's face up at Negi's obstinacy, and she impulsively pulled the smaller boy into a hug, partly so that the boy wouldn't let see that she was close to crying, "And I already knew. Ayaka told me yesterday. I'm alright, it's just… I was just hoping that I could at least hear it from his own mouth." She swallowed all her conflicting feelings and tried to ignore the disgusting anger burning in her stomach.

Instead of struggling out of her grip like usual, Negi just nodded into her shoulder, "Nii-san is an idiot…"

"That is something we can both agree on." She shook her head, trying to push all the unrelated doubts aside, "Besides, romance problems are part and parcel of being a teenager isn't it?" She smiled brightly, "So I'll be alright. Anyway, we still need to talk to Evangeline and gather some other members for the club." She wearily stood up, feeling extremely stiff, "Come on Negi."

As the girl left the room with a bright smile, Negi frowned sadly, "You don't have to act so brave Asuna-san... Nii-san no baka…. Make sure everyone is happy my foot. You hypocrite."

******Broken Faith******

"Hah? You want me to be the Hononary Advisor of this weird ass club? Forget it." Evangeline decided without even thinking about it.

"Eeeeh... c'mon, Eva-chi, we're going to Mundus Magicus to find Negi's dad after all," Asuna smiled a little too sweetly, causing Evangeline to turn wary, "Any information we find will only benefit you in the long run~"

The short vampire pursed her lips in thought, causing Asuna to internally jump in joy as the vampire took the bait, "Fine. But on only one condition."

"Bring it on," Asuna declared confidently.

"You have to pass two tests. If you can succeed, I will agree."

"What? Why?" the red headed girl spluttered.

"Heeeh… are you going back on your word? Looks like I don't have to be the Advisor for your retarded club after all." Evangeline gloated as she turned the challenge back on the red head.

"Grrr…. I'll do it! What test is it!?"

"Eehh… uhm… didn't we come here to get permission to use Evangeline-sensei's resort? How did it turn out this way?" Negi quietly mourned to himself.

"Follow me."

Together, the trio trooped into Evangeline's resort, stepping into the portal corresponding with a snowy white orb with what looked like a miniature blizzard raging in it.

"C-co-coold!"

The vampire pierced the red haired girl with a fierce look, "Your goal is to survive in here for seven days." Right after saying that, the vampire phased away and reappeared behind the girl, "Without your pactio."

"Wha-what?! That's impossible! I can't use Kanka without my Pactio!"

"Then give up." Evangeline bluntly countered, "Without conviction, you will really die in here. Think, is going to Magicus Mundus for a summer vacation truly worth your life? You can always go ahead without me as your Advisor."

Asuna silently stood there, hair obscuring her eyes before looking up with a firm resolve glinting in her mismatched eyes. "I'll do it."

Negi and Evangeline watched the girl punch a wall hard enough to create the beginnings of a cave in the icy wall.

"Evangeline-sensei, you can't let her do this! She can't do this."

The vampire turned to look at her apprentice with an indecipherable expression on her face, "Don't you have faith in her? She will survive. It's only a matter of whether she realizes it or not."

******Broken Faith******

**Play Genesis of Aquarion – Pride – Nageki no Tabi**

A figure enshrouded in a black trenchcoat slowly trudged through the deep snow, making his way into a tiny handmade cave. At the very back of the shallow cave, he could see a small figure, darker then the darkness of the cave, shivering violently under a thin rag. Moving so quietly through the snow as if he truly were a ghost, the figure slid his way towards the trembling red haired girl and placed his hand upon her back, channeling his chakra into her, gently warming up her body.

Slowly the frost that had gathered around her melted and the girl released a gentle moan before she stopped shivering entirely. Her breathing slowed into a deep and soft rhythm. Satisfied that she would be alright, the figure ghosted his way back out of the cave. Once outside, he leapt up onto an icy cliff and agilely climbed his way to where another figure, this one dressed in nothing but black, Lolita style clothing, was watching him.

"You didn't have to be so harsh on her." A deep voice, obscured by the plain white mask came out strong and clear despite the violently raging winds around them.

His companion snorted, "And you are doing nothing but babying her, helping her out like this. What is the point then if she cannot handle the burden later on?"

"You speak as if you know they will face a challenge." The man in the trenchcoat calmly replied.

Resolutely, the loli vampire stared at him, "They will. Make no mistake. You don't know Magicus Mundus like I do."

An unspoken challenge hung in the air between them, heedless of the icy winds.

Crystal blue eyes penetrated turquoise ones, "Then I will be there to protect them."

"You cannot be everywhere at once. And if you do, then the challenges they will face will be overcome, not by their strength, but yours. It will only hurt them in the long run."

Naruto smiled under his mask, "And yet, here you are, watching over her everyday so that she doesn't die. Is it so hard to show that you care?"

"Be quiet brother, they came to me for guidance, not you. So I will do this my way. And I am not as soft as you."

The blonde could tell, the vampire was agitated and embarrassed by his claim judging by the slight English accent that pervaded her words.

"Nonetheless, why the dramatics? Skulking around to watch over her from the shadows. Is it not better if you just confronted her, and told her of your resolution? You are only prolonging her suffering." Evangeline tried to change the topic of her kindness with another challenge.

"I will. It's just not time yet."

The pale, blonde haired girl snorted lightly, "It hasn't arrived yet? Do not expect me to help you again when the wounds you inflicted on her fester. Unlike Chachamaru, I have no particular investment in this one."

As Naruto made to silently leave, Evangeline shouted over her shoulder, "You have three days left. Make it count."

******Broken Faith******

The vampire, dressed in an elegant white gothic styled dress nodded with a sour frown as a confident Asuna summoned her sword and twirled it expertly.

"I passed your first test. Staying in this god forsaken place for seven days! What's your next test!?"

"You will be fighting with Negi." She stepped up beside Negi, "Don't go easy on her boy. I'll kill you if you do."

"Ha-Hai!"

As Asuna and Negi took their starting positions on opposite ends of the icy cliff, Asuna called out to Negi, "Don't take it easy on me; I'll be angry if you do."

Grimacing, the red haired youth only nodded before bending his knees and stretching his hands out in a classic kenpo position.

Asuna on the other hand took a deep breath to clear her mind, focusing only on the match in front of her, "Kanka!"

A golden glow immediately surrounded her as she swished her _Harisen_, "Hehehe, I've been practicing. Here I come, Negi!"

Negi disappeared and her world sudden spun on its axis.

"Huh?"

**[BAM!]**

"Wha-what?"

Mismatched eyes stared up into the artificial clouds in shock, partially obscured by an apologetic looking Negi, from her position on her back.

Evangeline smirked, "You give up?"

Asuna scrambled back to her feet, "No way! I-I just wasn't ready!"

"Very well. Beat her up Negi." Evangeline curtly ordered with a smug smirk.

******3 hours later******

A beaten and defeated Asuna lay on the ground, drawing ragged breaths and trying not to move her bruised body too much.

"Leave us boy."

"Bu-but…"

Evangeline glared at him, putting as much Killing Intent behind it as was safe, causing the boy to gulp and nod before leaving in a dejected pose.

Turning back to the beaten girl, Evangeline frowned softly, "You understand now don't you? The reason you want to go with Negi, because you want to protect him, is nothing but rubbish. Negi Springfield's ability has far surpassed yours. If you go with him, you will be nothing but a burden. Even if you survived in the Blizzard Plains, your conviction is still weak, treating this as nothing but a game to play between classmates."

Her heart quivered, "Tha-that's not true! I really want to help Negi."

The vampire snorted, "That's not exactly true is it? You are afraid of being left behind. Negi is moving on, becoming more and more powerful. Many of our classmates have pactios now, instead of just you, and Naruto has proposed to your best friend."

Evangeline shot her a menacing smile and an ominous pressure enveloped Asuna's body, causing her to shake uncontrollably on the snow, "You are just afraid of being empty. An unneeded shell."

She turned around and began to leave, "Grow up Asuna. This is no place for a normal person. Move on like normal people do, graduating from middle school and loosing contact with them is only normal. Take it from me, doing it now, instead of later will only save you from pain."

A thrown snowball hit the back of Evangeline's head.

She could feel her muscles screaming as she forced them to move, forcing herself to stand strong against the vampire's ridiculously ominous presence.

It was painful, but she had been hurt far worse. It couldn't compare to the pain and uncertainty she felt when she heard that Naruto had proposed to Ayaka, or when she was first came to Mahora. She didn't want to feel that way ever again. She had spent seven days in this stupid place, with nothing but thoughts, emotions and fears.

"Don't talk like you know me, you stupid loli." Asuna gritted out, "Yeah, I'm just a normal human, I can't use magic like Negi or Konoka, I can't fight like Naruto or Ku Fei, I can't fly like you, so what?! So what if I was empty, what is important now, is that I have bonds."

Shakily she stood up, and a golden aura started to surround her, even without being consciously activate, causing the vampire to quirk an interested eyebrow, "Friendship, rejection, love or hate, etched in my memories and my spirit, they have all defined this person named Asuna Kagurazaka, even if we grow up and separate, I am not empty anymore. I DARE you to say any different! "

She charged at the vampire; the golden aura around her slowly growing larger and larger until it overcame Evangeline's own pressure, "That's what being human means! So what if I don't know why I'm truly doing this yet, but I'll find out, and when I do, I'll come back and shove it in your face!"

Asuna ducked under a retaliatory clawed hand before halting suddenly, the fierce expression on her face changing into a warm smile, stunning the vampire.

Lifting one hand, Asuna ruffled Evangeline's hair with a soft smile, causing the vampire to gape at the taller girl, "Right now, even if you don't think it's important, just keeping up with you guys, having fun with you, Negi, Konoka and everybody else in 3-A is more than good enough of a reason for me. Maybe I will find something truly worth fighting for later, but for now, that reason is more than enough."

She leaned down and gently hugged the vampire, "Thank you… for watching over me for seven days, even if you had to pretend to be harsh."

Evangeline spluttered in embarrassment, "Wha-what? How did you know?"

"Even if the idiot is an idiot, he still taught me a few things, especially to sense for energy signatures."

"Tch, even indirectly, he keeps screwing up my plans. Whatever," Evangeline elbowed Asuna in the gut, and wriggled out of her grasp, leaving the red headed girl to breathlessly groan on the ground.

"Wa-wait! You're just leaving me here? Alone? What happened to the second test?!"

"You passed, the objective was never to defeat Negi. It was to see if your conviction was strong enough." the Shinso casually threw her hair back, "And you're not alone either. I wasn't the only one watching you."

"He?"

"The idiot, as you so kindly called me." A voice from behind Asuna caused her to immediately freeze on the ground, more out of dread, rather than shock.

"Wha-what are you doing here? And why couldn't I sense you?" Asuna coolly asked without turning back.

"Considering I was the one that taught you how to sense, is really that much of a surprise that I can hide from you?"

"Tsk. Only you would do something sneaky like that."

She stiffened at the sound of his boots crunching through the crisp snow, and rustling cloth as he took a seat behind her.

Back to back, the two of them sat there silently, awkwardly.

******Under the World Tree******

**Play Utada Hikaru – First Love **

It was a beautiful day. Clear and sunny, sun light filtered down between the gaps in the thick leafy branches above a tall blonde. Beside him a green haired girl dressed in a lavender yukata and a small girl, dressed in a pink one stood serenely.

"Do you remember this place?"

Chachamaru nodded silently, a funny feeling fluttering around in her chest. A strange feeling of expectation that she did not understand hung in the air, "This was the place where you first said you loved me."

Her grip on Akako's tiny hand tightened slightly, as the gears in her chest started vibrating faster and faster.

"It's been a while since we last came here isn't it? After that night, you practically forced me to move into your Master's cabin."

Chachamaru smirked primly, "I did not. I simply asked you to come; you just didn't have any other answer other than yes." She watched as Akako let go of her hand to inspect a clump of bright red flowers near the base of the massive trunk.

Naruto stood beside her and gently took one of her hand as they watched the small girl start chasing a butterfly, "Do you remember what I said that night?" he whispered quietly.

Chachamaru found her throat blocked by something she did not recognize, so she could only nod mutely.

Her free hand shot up to her mouth to cover a gasp, as the blonde fluidly bent to one knee in front of her, and looked up at her adoringly, holding something in his hand.

His spoke softly, lovingly, "It must have been painful for you. Not receiving a proper proposal like I should have done before I stupidly did it for Ayaka first. It wasn't fair to you."

Chachamaru only shook her head, trying to deny his words but her body seemed to have frozen up, "It's not fair to you either, that you have to put up with my selfishness."

He paused and took a deep breath, "Chachamaru Karakuri, I love you, will you marry me?"

He opened the box to reveal a small silver ring, inlaid with a deep emerald gem that gave off an aura of strength and solidness, like the massive tree behind her. The band was plain, undecorated, simple and yet managed to convey the depth of his feelings.

Silver tears began to leak as the speechless Chachamaru disbelievingly touched the gem withg one jointed finger.

******Mahora North Terrace******

Two blondes slowly climbed up the stairs, one dressed in a white gown that reached her knees, the other was wearing a casual black jacket and brown slacks.

One delicate eyebrow rose as she smiled softly, "We haven't been here in a while." She slowly walked over to the balustrade and gently ran a finger along the weathered marble. Her blonde companion smiled as he leaned against the exact same pillar that he had, unknowingly mimicking the positions they had on the night of the Mahora Festival.

The blonde girl began humming a familiar song as she began to dance alone, twirling, heedless of whether anyone might see her or not.

Naruto simply felt a strange warmth fill his chest as he watched her dance with a child like happiness in her eyes. The fierce, driven Iincho of 3-A disappeared, replaced by Ayaka Yukihiro as she danced with a childlike innocence, gentleness and passion. Every time he saw this facet of her, the woman in front of him held far more attractiveness when she let go of her burdens, he couldn't help but want to hold her and never let her go.

She opened her hands to him, and he slowly walked over to her, silently accepting the invitation. The two of them silently began dancing, a strange, tuneless formal dance, her head resting in the crook of her neck, enjoying the warm weather as a gentle breeze blew around them.

Breathlessly, they came to a stop and Ayaka sat on the balustrade, looking out on the magnificent view of Mahora City, spread out below them and stretching for as far as they could see. Strength filled her heart, as she felt refreshed and cleansed for some reason.

"What was the special occasion?"

When she didn't receive an answer she turned around curiously, "Naruto?"

Only to draw a deep shocked breath as she realized Naruto had gotten to one knee, something clasped tightly in his hand.

"Na…Naruto?" she breathed out shakily.

"Someone like you doesn't deserve such a haphazard life, you deserve a beautiful life, where your chosen partner can always be with you, giving you every single bit of his attention and love. You didn't deserve to be nearly kidnapped that night, and given a half assed proposal, but I want to correct that." The blonde drew a deep breath, "I may not have the kind of future prospects that your father would respect, I can't provide you a lavish life, I can't even say I will love only you because I am a selfish coward, but yet I still want to try, I want to do everything this selfish person can to make you happy."

He carefully opened the box to reveal a small silver ring, inlaid with a clear sapphire gem that shone like the sky. The band was plain, undecorated, simple and yet managed to convey the depth of his feelings.

"Ayaka Yukihiro, will you marry me?"

Clear tears leaked out of turquoise orbs, as Ayaka slowly touched the ring, feeling its every facet as if trying to embed the feeling into her memory.

******Blizzard Plains******

"Right now, at this very moment, I am currently proposing to three people. Both Ayaka and Chachamaru have probably already received their rings, I don't know whether they will accept me or not."

Biting her lips so hard that she could taste blood, the red haired girl buried her face in her knees to try and stifle the choked sob.

Why was he telling her this? Right now, after painfully enduring a stupid cold, frozen tundra for seven days. She didn't think she could take it.

Yet, her newly gained resolve helped to steel her spine and she practically forced her tongue to move once again, "Con-congrat-ulations. I hope you, Chachamaru, Ayaka and Konoka will be happy."

"I'm not proposing to Konoka."

"Huh? But you said three?"

Strong arms wound around her waist, and lifted her up almost effortlessly onto his lap, "I'm proposing to you."

Her brain immediately stopped functioning.

"….What…? Wait WHAT?!"

Naruto winced since Asuna had shouted directly into his ear, "Calm down idiot."

"Wha-what are you saying!? Calm down!? How can **ANYONE** CAL-"

Her brain immediately stopped functioning. Again. As Naruto kissed her deeply.

Almost unwillingly, despite her brain screaming at her body to reject him, her arms wound around his neck tightly and she kissed back. His arms, strong and solid pulled her body close together. The warmth of his body felt… incredible, after being so cold for so long, encouraging the fire in her chest to flare up even bigger.

Their lips separated breathlessly and Asuna couldn't help but giggle as their foreheads connected, mismatched eyes peering into deep blue ones.

He whispered breathlessly, "I know it's not fair to you, that you didn't have the time to think this through properly unlike Chachamaru and Ayaka. I'm sorry that you have to put up with my selfishness, but despite that, I **WILL** make you happy, even though I also love Ayaka and Chachamaru. That's not a promise, not a statement. It's a fact."

Common sense and logic was swept away, as were her doubts.

"Asuna Kagurazaka, I love you. Will you marry me?"

He opened a small box to reveal a small silver ring, inlaid with a deep ruby gem that seemed to burn with an inner fire. The band was plain, undecorated, simple and yet managed to convey the depth of his feelings.

Asuna slapped him.

And ran off in tears, but not before grabbing the ring and hugging it desperately to her chest, leaving an utterly shocked blonde behind.

Despite her tears, a brilliant smile lit her face.

******Broken Faith******

**:)  
**


	30. Daybreak's Epilogue

**Broken Faith Chapter 30**

**Daybreak's Epilogue**

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything. All source material belongs to their respective creator/author/artist. **

Alright, nice long chapter for the readers.

Broken Faith is now exactly one year old, not to mention, we finally hit 1k reviews AND we finally get to Mundus Magicus for real in this chapter. Not bad for a birthday huh? Don't congratulate me yet though, wait until AFTER you finish the chapter.

Hehehe...

**Soundtrack List**

Rie Tanaka – Fields of Hope

Angel Beats OST – Ichiban no Takaramono – Karuta ver

D-Technolife – UVERWORLD

ALTIMA – Burst the Gravity

Yuna Ito – My Heart Will Go On

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me from Hell

******Broken Faith******

**Play Rie Tanaka – Fields of Hope **

Asuna gently kneeled down beside the Japanese tea table in Evangeline's living room, with Ayaka on the other side, her back to a wall.

"Thanks Iincho, I owe you one." The red headed girl happily thanked her friend as she gave the contents of a yellow folder with a picture of a mature looking red head on the front a quick glance through.

"It's nothing. It's for Negi after all." Ayaka gently replied as she stroked her hand through soft green hair.

"That is... Chachamaru right? Is she alright?" Asuna inquired softly, staring at the gynoid who looked blatantly like a ten year old girl and appeared to be napping on Ayaka's lap.

"She's fine. She's just using an obsolete model so her batteries run out faster than usual and she needs to rest more. It seems like her real body is being upgraded in preparation for your trip to the Magic World." The golden haired girl quietly replied.

Her friend knitted her brows, "That makes it sound like you're really set on not coming with us. Are you sure? This is for Negi after all." She glanced to a corner of the room where another blonde was peacefully sleeping with a dozing Makie on his chest and a small ball of fur curled up in her arms, "Naruto isn't coming either is he?" She added with some disappointment.

"Well..." Ayaka smiled wryly, "I want to come, but ever since Naruto somehow miraculously made friends with him, my father seems set on grooming me to be the heir of his company. If you ask me though, I think he's just happy to get another male in the family. At any rate, I will be busy training for the most part, although I'll try to make it before the holidays end. Naruto is going though, didn't you know?"

Her jaw dropped comically with an accusing finger at the sleeping blonde, "Eh?! Negi told me he wasn't coming!" causing her childhood friend to roll her eyes, "Then it either didn't get through your thick head properly, or he told you wrong. The idiot's going, but he has a mission or something else to do but he can be contacted if you need him. He says that he will meet up with you guys as soon as he finishes whatever his client asked him to do. Probably before I arrive so, we'll have some time for sightseeing before we return." She added thoughtfully.

The two of them fell into a reticent atmosphere; Ayaka was content to wait for her friend to breach the subject on her own terms while she slowly stroked her new pseudo sister's glossy hair, serenely watching the pond while the red head took a closer look at the contents of the folder.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable fidgeting, her friend finally spoke, carefully keeping her eyes on the investigation report in front of her. "You seem really... different. More... mellow." She gestured at the blonde girl, "Even the way you seem to dress lately seems different. No offence, but before you always dressed elaborately like you had something to prove, standing out to the point that it was almost abrasive."

"Really?" Ayaka replied easily with a brief check of her casual attire, a simple pale pink shirt and white skirt, her long hair tied in a long motherly pony tail that drooped down her front, "I guess it is a little different from usual. In a way, I don't have anything to prove anymore. I'm happy to be who I am, happy to stay at home where people appreciate me no matter what I wear or how I act." Ayaka commented with a casual shrug.

"Is that why you're not hiding the fact that you knew about magic from me anymore?" Asuna muttered, wincing a little at the hint of accusation that made its way into her voice.

Ayaka shook her head with a throaty chuckle, "That doesn't really have much to do with it; I might have known magic existed, but to me, magic was the reason my mother died. And it's not like I could actively use magic anyway, so I did everything I could do disassociate myself with it." She grinned mischievously, "Though I have to admit, watching you frantically scramble to try and hide it from me, was rather hilarious."

"I take it back. You haven't changed at all." Asuna grumbled as her friend laughed her typical noble lady's laugh, "Why is he so tired by the way?" a red headed girl lowly whispered to her best friend, who simply quirked one eyebrow in return and motioned at the identical plain silver promise bands on their ring fingers.

"Chachamaru told me that getting those rings weren't easy and he had to ask for a lot of favours."

Asuna's thoughts immediately went to the plain golden band, decorated with a ruby red gem that seemed to glow with an innate fire, that she kept in its velvet box deep in her safest, most secret hiding place, under so many locks and chains that not even Konoka's horrifyingly powerful combination spells wouldn't be able to blast through it. Probably.

"So he was pretty much running errands for more than two weeks straight. Then after that, he was spending time with Makie because he didn't have the chance to bring her up to date since everything kept happening so fast. He more or less ran himself into the ground, trying to keep everybody happy." Ayaka smiled lovingly at the blonde, "Stupid idiot."

Seeing the affection Ayaka had for the blonde caused the red head to feel slightly envious, "You're really serious about him aren't you?"

Turquoise eyes turned to regard her inscrutably, "Aren't you?"

Her mismatched eyes could not bear to see the confidence they lacked in Ayaka's and carefully looked down at the glint of silver on her finger, playing with the silver band on her finger, "I... I don't know. You are not even going to consider that he won't be completely devoted to you? Not to mention we aren't even 16 yet..."

She nodded, carefully choosing her words, as sincerely and honestly as possible, "I am willing to accept that. Like I said, he knows that and admits that it's unfair to us, but at the same time, but seeing him strive so hard to keep us happy..."

She smiled softly, her golden hair flowing peacefully in the soft breeze, "Even I am not cold hearted and selfish enough to punish him or those that have done nothing wrong but have feelings for him, so I wish that we can all be happy together. That includes you, Asuna. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to knock his block off if he tries to chase more skirts." She added with a ruthlessly cold grin that caused the blonde sleeping in a corner to unconsciously shiver.

Suddenly Chachamaru yawned a cute "Muuu..." and the green haired slowly got up from Ayaka's lap with a stretch, though the fact that her eyes were clear and sharp told Asuna that she had been more or less listening in on the conversation, even in sleep mode.

Must be useful, being able to sleep in class and take notes at the same time, Asuna mused.

"Ah, you're awake." Ayaka greeted the gynoid cheerfully and poured her a cup of hot tea that was received with a grateful nod.

"He told you didn't he?" Chachamaru directed her words at the third member of their trio, continuing the conversation despite not even being an active participant until now, "He isn't asking for an answer now, that promise ring he gave us," she motioned at the silver band, "It's a promise that he sincerely wants to be with us and that he will wait for us to properly decide and treat us as we deserve in the meantime. If we chose not to accept, well..." she shrugged carelessly, "It's up to you. I'm not going to force either of you to make that choice."

The golden haired heiress nodded in agreement and slowly leaned over to gently take Asuna's trembling hand, "My reasons are similar to Chachamaru's but I just want you to know, this warm feeling in my heart when I'm with him, with Chachamaru, Negi, Akako and even Evangeline. I want you to feel it with me. We're best friends aren't we? And I'm certainly not going to offer something like this to someone I don't know."

"I..."

The blonde in the corner gave a particularly loud snore, causing the three girls to stifle snorts and break out into helpless giggles as the mood was completely broken.

"Stupid idiot."

"Agreed."

"That's why he needs us three to keep him in line I guess." Asuna wryly commented.

"Oh that reminds me," The gynoid rummaged around in the small bag hanging on her yukata's obi before pulling out a handful of small brooches, "Master asked me to pass these to the Negima Club. Make sure everyone has one and are wearing them when we go to the Festival tonight. She also said that anyone who loses their badge before we leave for England shall be forced to leave the club."

"Ehh! Why?!"

"I am unsure, although I noted that she placed an unusual emphasis on that particular caveat." The gynoid smiled slyly, "I am also not supposed to mention that the fact that she was talking to the rest of 3-A and that she told them that they could have the slot of whoever's badge was taken."

"That evil vampire!"

The blonde girl interrupted them with a chuckle, "Maa... why not go along with it? It sounds fun, and we can test if the Negima Club are strong enough to handle Magicus Mundus. I mean if they can't even keep a brooch safe from a group of school girls, that's a little disappointing isn't it?"

******Broken Faith******

"Uwahh... this isn't even a fight. It's a frigging massacre." Makie sweat dropped as she nibbled at a cloud of cotton candy, watching the remaining members of 3-A who hadn't been inducted into the Negima Club get thrown around like sandbags, "Neh, Akako?"

"Muuu!" was the happy and muffled reply.

"Right... you're not even paying attention." She murmured with another sweat drop at the small girl who only came up to her waist, gobble down a cloud of cotton candy in one hand and a toffee apple in another, "I'm so dead if Naruto-sensei finds out I let you eat that much sweets."

"Makie! What are you doing!? Help us get those badges!" A flustered Yuuna yelled at the pink haired girl as she was rebuffed by a grinning Haruna with ease.

As soon as Asuna had dryly relayed the situation to the rest of the Negima Club, they had all surprisingly and uproariously approved of the competition, even timid Nodoka had smiled confidently. In fact, they even arrived at the festival in full battle formation, dressed in cute and beautiful kimonos with their respective white wing brooches proudly pinned to the front.

In the deadpan words of 3-A's infamous philosopher as she fended off the Narutaki twins' ambush with a discreet wind spell, "Epic fail."

"Ahaha, gomen, gomen. I'm babysitting Akako you see. So I can't help!"

"What's wrong with you and Iincho?! Don't you two want to join the Negima Club?! This is for your precious Negi-sensei you know!?"

Makie pursed her lips to stop herself from bursting into laughter and hurried away with the small fox girl at her side, "Mah, it's not like I need to join." She muttered quietly to herself, "But it's kinda sad seeing them try so hard and not get to join... Maybe I should ask Iincho to let them come on the beach trip with us..."

A tiny brooch, shaped like the mirror image of the ones Yuuna and co. were so desperately trying to steal, only these ones were made of jet black onyx, was a black wing that glinted proudly on the front of her's and Akako's kimono.

******Broken Faith******

"Ah! It's the BEACCCCHHHH!" A group of extremely excitable girls dressed in bikinis, most of them from the class 3-A of Mahora Academy dashed out in to the water without hesitation.

"Oi! Shouldn't you be thanking me before you lot just you jump into the water like that?! I'm the one that let all of you come with me after all."

"Thank you, Iincho!"

Ayaka sweat dropped, "It's a little half hearted... but whatever! Ohohohoh!"

Negi's jaw dropped all to way to the sand as he surveyed the beach filled with brightly coloured umbrellas and swim suits of all kinds with wide eyes, "Wh-why are we suddenly at the beach? What's with this sudden development?!"

A voice spoke from behind him, "Meh... Isn't it fine? Besides we need to have fun after all..." The red head dropped to her knees with a haunted look in her eyes as she started trembling violently, "Or rather... I'd do anything just to get away from that nightmarish, hellish, training for just a while. That crazy bitch is worse than Naruto when it comes to training; at least he wasn't actively trying to kill me...I think."

"Ahaha..." Negi chuckled awkwardly as the memories of his own training sessions with Evangeline and Naruto returned with a vengeance, "That is uh... Evangeline-sensei's way of showing affection? Still, I'm surprised you let everyone come. I expected you to at least protest. Loudly."

She glared at him, "Is that how you really think of me? Loud?" when Negi began to stutter a denial, she rubbed her temples and she got up, waving away his stutter, "Ignoring your little word vomit there, stopping them from coming along is too troublesome, at least this way we can keep our eye on them."

"You expect them to cause trouble?" Negi questioned with a quirk of the brow.

"Not trouble per se. I just think they can get a little too excited without realizing how dangerous things can be sometimes." Asuna replied easily.

"Heeh... Even if you look like that, you sound really mature nowadays."

A vein popped on Asuna's forehead as she towered over the ten year old teacher with a dark aura of pain, "So... that's how you really see me huh? Loud, immature and **flat**?"

"Hiiii! Sorry! **Wait**, I never said anything about flat!"

Asuna began cracking her knuckles, "You implied it."

"Ma, ma..." Negi's ass was saved from getting spit roasted by Haruna who suddenly appeared behind Asuna with an eerie grin causing the red haired girl to shiver as if something cold was slithering up and down her spine, "Negi-boya has a point, and you have to admit it though, you and Ayaka have been really weird lately, well not weird, just more calm and confident sort of feel." She giggled evilly; her gossip detector was going off the charts around the red head, "Maybe you two... **love**?"

The rest of 3-A students within hearing range immediately closed in upon the word** love**, save Ayaka who began rubbing at her temples, feeling the incoming headache.

"Sa... You can tell Haruna-baa chan, no one else find out, I promise. Kukukuku..."

Asuna tried to backpedal, a brilliant blush on her face, only to find that her escape route had been cut off by a pair of grinning twins that wound themselves on her arms, "Do-don't be stupid, it's nothing like that!"

"Hora, hora... Ah... maybe... Naruto? You've been getting close with that quiet guy haven't you? How far have you gone with him?" Haruna countered with a lewd grin.

The blush threatened to turn volcanic, "Wha-wha-what are you talking about, you stupid hentai!? We haven't gone ANYWHERE, he JUST proposed!"

The jaws of every one of her classmates simultaneously hit the ground with a crack.

"Ah..."Hello, headache, my name is Ayaka.

Eyes bulged all around the chagrined girl, whatever they had been expecting; it wasn't a **bold** declaration like that.

"..."

"..."

**[Ding Ding Ding!] **

Yue immediately punched Haruna with an upper cut, "Why didn't you turn your damn phone off for such an important moment!"

"I mean... I uh... GAAAH!" Asuna wrenched her arms free from the slack grip of the Narutaki twins and made her escape, face absurdly red, filled with a strange mix of embarrassment and horror.

Negi watched her go with amusement when he felt something burning the back of his neck, almost as if there was a whole group of predators behind him. When he spun around, he immediately started sweating bullets, "Why... why are you all looking at me like that? Why do I feel like a slab of meat?"

When Yue, Haruna, and everybody else started advancing on him with all the force of a group of predators hungry for gossip, Negi decided that Asuna had the right idea. In other words, he turned tail and ran away as fast as possible.

As one they spun around to find their class president. She was missing too.

"Ah! They ran away! Everyone spread out! I want to know what proposal she was talking about!" Haruna began issuing orders like an experienced commander, a flat out creepy, hungry glint in her eyes, "Hunt them down. Dead or alive!"

******Broken Faith******

**Play Angel Beats OST - Ichiban no Takaramono Karuta ver**

Asuna slammed the door to her room shut behind her and slowly collapsed onto her butt, sagging in relief with a small sigh as the sounds of her classmates footsteps faded away down the hall way, "That was a close one..."

"Is there something wrong?" the other occupant of the room inquired with a vaguely amused tone as he slowly ran one hand up and down Akako's back.

Asuna immediately jumped, completely unaware that he was still here, she had assumed that the blonde was already out on the bleach, "N-no!" the heat in her cheeks which had been slowly fading away, returned with a vengeance as she scrambled back to her feet, feeling highly conscious of herself especially since she was still in her swimsuit, "Wha-what are you still doing here anyway?"

Naruto shrugged, the blonde was sitting beside the window, leaning on the wall with a dozing Akako on his lap, "She got **really** excited on the plane. Fell asleep as soon as we touched down. I fully expect her to be up and jumping again the moment she wakes up." Naruto finished with a wry grin, ruffling Akako's soft fox ears with exceptional gentleness, causing the vibrations coming from her throat to sound just that little bit louder. They flicked back as the sleeping girl unconsciously tried to make him rub her ears harder by pushing upwards.

The red head with the bells in her hair slowly shuffled over to the blonde, carefully petting the small girl's hair with gentle strokes as well, "Don't be so harsh on her. It was her first time on a plane and I think it's the same for the beach isn't it?"

"You try being the one to stop her from jumping around the plane. She was so excited she almost lost hold of her transformation a few times." Naruto shot back easily, "Wasn't as easy as it looked."

Asuna pursed her lips, "I haven't seen her in full fox form lately, why is that?"

Naruto nodded slowly with a brief, half hidden wince, "It's probably because of us, those closest to her heart. We wear these forms, so she wants to fit in more. She's not truly comfortable with a full human form yet, that's why she still has her tail and ears, though I suspect she'll lose them fully after a few years...** if** she stays with us."

Before the red head could ask what he meant, the fox girl in question awoke with a cute yawn, showing off her tiny fangs. Ruby red eyes flicked around the room with feral wariness before landing on the two people leaning above her, causing the sharpness in them to soften dramatically. Clambering out of her pseudo father's lap, she looked around the room before remembering where she was. Instantly, the small girl dashed for the door, dreaming of the wide open oceans and treasures that lay behind that paper door, only to be dashed like glass on rocks when she was hauled up by her exasperated father, "Not yet. You have to get dressed before you can go out."

The small fox girl pouted adorably at the other person in the room as she shook a small fist at the wryly grinning blonde, "Swim! Papa won't let me go!"

"You have to put on your swim suit first, Akako," Asuna crooned at the small girl who nodded reluctantly, "Come here, I'll put it on for you, then we can go together, alright?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, as the small red headed girl obediently toddled her way towards Asuna and lifted her chubby arms up for Asuna to properly pull up the swimwear, "Why in the world does she obey you more than she does me? For that matter, why does she obey Ayaka and Chachamaru more than she does me as well?"

"It needs a woman's touch." The red head replied smugly as she picked up the fox girl who was contentedly nuzzling her hair, "Can we err... go somewhere else other than the main beach? I want to avoid the others for a while." She admitted with a blush.

Naruto, who was just about to pick up a carry bag containing some of Akako's clothes and essentials, quirked an eyebrow at her, "What for?"

"I might have accidentally let it slip that you uh... you know..." Asuna made vague waving motions with the one not carrying Akako.

"Know what?" the blonde replied blankly.

She rolled her eyes and lifted up her left ring finger with an embarrassed glare at the dense blonde.

"Ah..." a hurt look crossed his face, so brief that Asuna had to wonder if she hadn't imagined it, "If you don't want them to know, you don't really have to wear it." He noted blandly as he walked out of the room and bumped into a rather wild eyed Negi hiding behind a potted plant.

Naruto blinked, "Oook... I assume you're being chased as well?"

"This is your fault." His adopted brother hissed like an angry cat, Naruto on the other hand, found it adorably cute, "All of them are looking at me as if they were waiting for something."

The blonde rolled his eyes and placed his hand on the smaller boy's shoulder along with the red head and teleported them to a out of the way cove that he had noticed during their track to the hotel from the airport, "You should be safe here. Assuming they don't find a way to track us."

Akako practically leapt out of Asuna's hands and raced into the crashing waves with an enthusiasm befitting a child of her age, if a little overboard.

While the small girl began splashing Negi with sea water, Naruto himself simply found a nice shaded spot under a rock and pulled out a scroll and a pair of glasses. Asuna arched an eyebrow as the blonde slipped the glasses onto his nose and peered at the scroll, jotting down some notes with a pen, "Didn't we come to the beach to relax? Why are you studying now of all times?"

She sat down beside him with a long suffering sigh, "I was expecting Negi to be the one giving me trouble with his stupidly serious attitude, instead I you're the one doing homework on the beach?"

"I'm not studying," He replied without looking up, "It's a side project. A rather interesting one actually, it's an original energy conversion seal. However, the person who designed this was a certified mad man. He is pretty creative, but still a mad man."

"Humph? Asuna grunted lowly as she parked herself beside her fiancée, "Why do you say that?"

"It's the formula that Chao Lingshen used as a base for her own seal, since she didn't have any chakra of her own, she forced the seal to burn her body and soul as a power source instead. The original seal isn't that much different...There's not a single failsafe in this design, if he had activated this thing, every single bit of his reserves would have gushed out of his body like a broken dam and forcefully turned into magic, sort of over loading a light bulb. In that one instant, there would probably be nothing he could not achieve, even rewriting time and space, but he would have died when his body and soul burnt out. So he either didn't plan to live past activation or it was never finished." Naruto grinned blandly, "Personally, I'm betting it was a mixture of both."

"Why would someone make something like that?" She inquired quietly, "As long as you are alive you can keep trying, if you plan to die you only have that one shot. What if you mess it up?"

"I'm not sure." Naruto admitted reluctantly, truth be told, he truly did not understand what the future _him_ found so pressing. Furthermore, he knew that the future Naruto had at least gotten married, or he would not have had descendants. He had a family to look after, he apparently had goals; to free the nine trapped Bijuu's, and if he went by what Chao had told him, to give Chachamaru true humanity. What did he have left to reconcile with, that was so urgent that his own life was nothing but another tool?

"Mah, it's not really a problem. I just thought that it was an interesting concept."

"Interesting _concept_? I seem to remember a certain someone thinking his life wasn't worth anything either though..." Asuna chirped teasingly.

"I was afraid of dying. It's one thing to know that everyone will die but another to actually find yourself looking at it straight in the face." The blonde shrugged with a smile, "I'd say I was entitled to act stupid for a day or two."

"Dying? **Looking at it straight in the face**?" Asuna echoed blankly before she grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled his scared blue orbs up to her own blazing ones, "I was talking about your cavalier treatment towards your own body during the tournament but you said it wasn't lethal. Now that brings up the question of What. Exactly. Were. **You** talking about? Why wasn't I told anything about this?!" she began shaking the blonde in her hands like ragdoll, punctuating each of her words.

'Open mouth, insert foot,' Naruto internally thought as he began sweating bullets, blood draining from his face as he realized his slip up, "I might have uh... been _dying _because of a problem with my seal for a week or so? Ehe?"

"Dying?" Asuna echoed with a dangerous glint in her eyes, "Care to elaborate, my '_dangerously-close-to-getting-castrated-with-a-blunt-__**SPOON**__' _future husband?"

Naruto whimpered pitifully and decided that proposing to three very stubborn, sharp and strong willed women probably wasn't a very good idea for his manhood's general safety, "I wasn't supposed to wake up, but since I did and the seal keeping me buried under the World Tree didn't react very well to that. It was going to destroy me and everything around me until the World Tree itself... or rather Akane," He pulled out the Empty Throne's Pactio card with trembling hands.

Emblazoned on its front was the almost lifelike portrait of a beautiful red head sitting under a massive tree, a sword cradled in her arms, as jewel like ruby eyes dreamily gazed into the sky. The words that usually designated the Pactio's Magistra Magi on the reverse side was conspicuously absent, "I'm not very clear about what really happened either," He admitted shamefully, "Whoever it was, granted me a pactio that circumvented the seal. It, in general manner of speaking, stabilized and repaired the seal before turning it dormant. For all intents and purposes, I'm completely free and have access to all of my former skills and powers as long as the Nihil et Regnum is in Burst Mode."

The red head gave him a shrewd glare as she seemed to internally weigh his answer for any hint of deception, when she failed to find any, she let go of his cheeks with a grunt and sat down with her knees drawn up to her chest, choosing instead, to vent her anger on the crashing waves with a fierce glower, "Does Chachamaru and Ayaka know?" She asked in a piercing tone, even the tinkling of the bells in her hair managed to sound angry.

The blonde gingerly poked at his bruising cheeks, mutely shaking his head in a negative gesture, "I... didn't want to make any of you worry. And I received the Patio before Ayaka joined us anyway, so it wasn't an issue."

"Wasn't an issue?" Naruto gulped when the piercing stare switched from the ocean and figuratively pinned his about-to-be-roasted ass to the sand, "Is that how you see us? Mere obstacles and decorations?" the blonde tried to protest her words but a single look from the furious girl told him that it was a rhetorical question and caused him to obediently shut his mouth up with an audible click, "You expect to us to sit at home and knit while you hide things from us so that we don't worry about you? Am I the only one here that understands how stupidly and pointlessly dramatic that sounds?"

She let out a barely audible whisper, filled with hurt, "What are we to you? Or is that you think we're not capable enough to stand beside you, so you shouldn't put even more burdens n our shoulders as well?"

"No! I... I'm sorry. I have no excuse..." Naruto mumbled a contrite apology, looking properly chastised in a dogeza.

Asuna simply sighed in frustration, "Just don't do it again. If you have a problem, tell us. We are NOT some stupid decorations for you to save." Asuna slouched down to hide a radiant blush, "Yo-you proposed to us didn't you? That's a real ma-ma-mar-partnership is supposed to work isn't it, you stupid fool. How do you think we will feel when we find out that you've been hiding everything, suffering everything on your own?"

The old shinobi scratched the side of his nose embarrassedly, "Understood."

She gave another tired sigh of exasperation, half wondering if this was what Chachamaru had to put up with all the time, "I won't tell Chachamaru or Ayaka. I don't think you would survive what they will do to you if they found out you were hiding something like this from them." She turned to glare at him again, "But you** are** sure that there is no problem anymore right?"

"I promise. It won't happen again." Her fiancée replied softly before leaning in to slowly peck her on the cheek.

A blushing Asuna turned her face away before reluctantly leaning in towards him with half lidded eyes.

"**ANYA FLAME BUSTER KIIICK!"**

"..."

"..."

"I'm going to drown whoever that is."

"I'll help." A furiously red Asuna who had somehow learned how to teleport muttered from the other side of the cove.

******Broken Faith******

A rather familiar looking small girl, slightly taller than Negi with her hair tied in two pigtails similar to Asuna's, sat in the shallow water, a few wisps of smoke rising from her smouldering clothes, an equally smoking glare directed at a startled looking Negi, "Anya?! What are you doing here?"

The smoking girl grabbed his arm and began to pull, "I finally found you, Negi!"

"What? What are you doing here? Whe-where are you taking me?"

An even smaller red haired girl with pout grabbed Negi's other hand and began to match Anya's grip on the child teacher, with Negi being strung up in the middle. The two girls matched glares and began to tug harder.

Negi began turning blue from the pressure from his arm sockets.

"Is this why you haven't gone back to Nekane-onee chan's house huh?! I'm nice enough to go all the way to Mahora to find you, you weren't there. I searched all over the place before I finally find you and what do I find? You, out here flirting with a little girl? Besides it's illegal Negi! She's not even 10!" Anya started sweating as the tiny girl that was barely tall enough to reach her shoulders actually began winning the tug of war with her deceptively small body.

"Stop pulling Negi-jii san! We were playing you stupid girl!"

"Who are you calling stupid, someone still wearing diapers like you doesn't have the right to call me that!"

"She's... my NIECE!" Negi choked out, desperate to keep his body in one piece. He swore he heard his bones giving way over the voices of the two girls bickering with each other.

Her eyes bulged and her grip on Negi slackened, causing Akako and Negi to go flying into the water with a loud splutter, "Ni...ece?" She knew that Negi had no relatives or siblings... which meant... "You got mar-mar-Corrupted ALREADY? I knew letting you come to a place like this was a bad idea!"

The young boy began rubbing at his temples and gave his childhood friend, who was currently in the middle of a nervous breakdown, a gimlet stare, "Why was me being corrupted, the first thing that comes to your mind? And no, I'm not married." He cut her off before she could begin ranting again, "She's Naruto-nii san's adopted daughter."

Anya furrowed her brows, "Whose daughter?"

Negi motioned to something behind her with a jerk of his chin; Anya felt a shadow slowly being thrown on to her from above.

Anya's eyes drifted up from a pair of orange swimming trunks, a lean and nicely shaped torso, a sharp and lean jaw line before finally landing on cheeks with 3 scars one each side and an creepily smiling face fitted with clear blue eyes and blonde hair and a rather beautiful red head standing beside him, "May I know why you're bullying my daughter?"

"Nagi-jii san...?"

"Not exactly.

"Why did you dye your hair a stupid colour like that?"

"Excuse me?!"

"And why did you tattoo your cheeks with something so stupid looking?"

Naruto's jaw opened and closed soundlessly, beside him Asuna collapsed to her knees and held her trembling sides tightly, desperately trying and failing not to start laughing hysterically.

"Oh... No wonder you look more idiotic than Nagi-jii san." A vein popped on Naruto's forehead, the young girl continued dismissively, disregarding what she had just said, "Wait, **brother**?"

"Yeah. Dad... sort of adopted him into the family." Negi remarked blandly as he carried a pouting Akako back onto dry land.

Anya started looking like she was going into overload; steam was even rising from her head, "Hu-huh? You met Nagi-jii san?"

"Long story." Both brothers remarked flatly, "Just think of it as a long lost cousin from his mother's side of the family." Naruto finished vaguely.

She blushed shyly, "Oh, so you were the one that Nagi wrote about in his letter to Nekane-onee chan..." the small girl who was a head taller than Akako politely bowed deeply, doing a **complete** attitude change from barely a moment ago, "I'm really sorry about the fuss and I thank you for taking care of this idiot for me and Nekane-onee sama."

She smiled sweetly while a tick mark appeared on his forehead, "I'm looking forward to having you in the family, Naruto-**JII san**."

"BWAHAHAHAHA!"

******Broken Faith******

**Play D-Technolife – UVERWORLD **

"Wooooah! Where is this?!" a small red haired girl, Anya looked around in wide eyed enthusiasm. She had stepped through a small inconspicuous looking portal in a shabby cabin onlyto find herself in the middle of a massive castle overlooking a massive tropical forest and perched on the side of a majestic waterfall. She ran over to the railing and peered down, seeing the basin of a waterfall, nearly 30 feet below her, yet the sounds of crashing water and spray of foam and mist still managed to reach her face.

Then she heard the flapping of large wings, a high speed shadow cut its way across the pavilion, followed by the shadow of a boy on a broom. Red wonder filled eyes looked upwards at where a focused Negi was chasing a flying Setsuna.

'_Sattica Magica; 17 Arrows of Light!'_ a shower of white arrows made of light blasted out of Negi's outstretched palm, angling towards the girl in front of him, soaring on white wings. Without hesitation, her wings flapped powerfully and unfurled to their maximum width, sending the girl flipping over skywards and backwards until she was directly behind a young boy with red hair. Another flap of her powerful wings sent her rocketing straight for her teacher.

Negi glanced backwards, his body as tense as a wound string as he waited for the half youkai behind him to get closer and closer. Just as her sword reached its arc and began its descent towards his back, the young teacher simply disappeared with a faint chuckle.

Setsuna's eyes widened as she automatically banked to the left in order avoid a direct hit to the back of her neck, "Not bad Negi-sensei, you mastered _Empty Air Instant Movement_ already."

"That wasn't all I mastered, Setsuna-san, don't let your guard down." She heard a faint voice from directly above her reach her ears. Instinctively, Setsuna spun, a foot that was wreathed in electricity barely missing her wings, as it was, a stray tendril had managed to hit one of her feathered limbs. Swaying slightly in the air with one slightly numb wing, Setsuna could only grin as the next part of Negi-sensei's staggered combo was launched, a direct and fully powered _Raika Houken_ at her chest.

Staggering slightly, Setsuna threw her blade up into the sky and gathered KI in the palm of her fist, _"Orou Gekka!" _and caught the crushing fist with one palm before smiling softly. Without a word she twisted the fist in her hand so that the younger boy unbalanced and her wings flapped, sending her shoulder into Negi's chest. The Half youkai finished her gasping teacher and slammed the heel of her palm into his chin, _"Zankuushou!" _

Just as she thought she was about to win, Negi twisted in mid air and wrapped his legs around her neck, dragging her downwards with him, the two of them struggled to use the other's body as a landing pad with kidney punches, bites and scratching.

Anya winced as the two of them crashed into the ground with a massive boom that threw up a spray of fine mist.

"You've really improved Negi-sensei. Your use of the _Hollow Truth_ was magnificent."

"Is that what they're calling cheating nowadays?" a rather sore and bruised Negi muttered as he clambered out of the crater with his student's arm slung around his shoulder.

"It's waay better than what he wanted to originally call it; _Naruto's School of Bullshitting_. It's no fun if you just say you are feinting and cheating isn't it? Besides I notice that your movements are no longer as direct and blunt as they used to be." Setsuna replied with a grin. The_ Hollow Truth _was concept that their blonde mentor had taught to them, in essence, the concept simply meant that not everything one saw was the truth. A punch could be hiding a kick, and a block could be hiding a punch. It could also be summarized as '_If there was an opening, take it and make the bastard hurt.'_

"Wha-wha-what was that!? What kind of high level combat was that? Was it an illusion?!" An anxious Anya darted over to him and began to pat down his body, as if trying to convince herself that he was really hurt, and it had been a real battle, "Ho-how? I've never even see movements like that, even in high class duelling textbooks."

"Our_ teachers_ don't exactly use a textbook. " Negi mumbled.

"They'd have to make it 18 and above if they did." Setsuna giggled lightly.

"Where is he anyway?"

"I think he was having one last spar with Evangeline-sensei before we left for Wales." An approaching Asuna replied easily.

Anya scratched the back of her head, "Why does Evangeline sound so familiar?" she slowly began to pale, "Wa-wait, Ev-evangeline? The Undead Mage? The Maga Nosferatu that was sealed under Mahora by your father?"

Negi nodded easily as he waved one hand around the sprawling estate, "Who else do you think can create a dimensional pocket of this size and complexity?"

"Ne-Negi! You don't know how scary she is! W-we have to get out of he-GHurk!?"

A massive Shuriken, twice as tall as her buried itself deep into the ground, one of four blades, proof of how hard the man sized thing had been thrown, quivered directly in front of her wide eyes. She could see a thread of red hair hanging from the blade.

Her own hair.

A girl with narrow eyes and dressed in some sort ninja like uniform darted out of the trees with a sheepish look on her face, "Oh! I'm sorry-degozaRUUU!?"

A shorter girl with tanned skin leapt out of the trees from behind her, taking advantage of the apologizing girl's inattentiveness to kick her in the back.

Kaede slammed in to a wall hard enough to crack it and was subsequently buried under the mass of rubble.

"Kyaaah! Someone save her!"

"Aru? Kaede is fine-aru. She gets worse injuries every other day."

"How can getting buried under tonnes of rock get any worse!?" A rather hysterical Anya shouted at the short and tanned girl with Chinese buns decorating her hair.

"Hahaha, it's my miss for not paying attention. That was a good kick Ku-degozaru." A rather cheery Kaede popped up from under the rubble, blood fountaining heavily from her temple, without even missing a beat.

"Hiiii!? She's bleeding to death! What's wrong with all of you!?"

"It's ok Anya-chan." A girl dressed in a nurse uniform with long straight hair, appeared beside Kaede wielding what Anya realized was a practice wand. Konoka gave the trembling red head a creepy smile complete with hidden eyes, "I can heal you. As long as you're not dead... Or your head hasn't exploded yet. Hehehe... So go ahead and get hurt more..."

As the gathered group of girls stood there watching Anya run away, screaming her head off about devils and monsters, Asuna slapped a palm to her forehead, "This was Naruto's plan wasn't it? He's the only one I know that is petty enough to hold a grudge for so long."

As one her friends all nodded and followed Anya with wide grins, even Negi had one, albeit a slightly guilty one, eager to watch the show.

A panting Anya ran down a desolate corridor until she found a thick wooden door at the very end. Panicking, she slipped through the slightly open door and shut it before sagging down onto the floor, "Wha-wha-what is wrong with this place? It's filled with all sorts of monsters!"

Gathering her breath, she shakily stood up and slowly walked forwards, muttering to herself, "That's right, I have to save Negi from this place. Who knows what kind of weirdo he'll become if he stays in a place filled with weirdos like that..." She glanced around her, "Where is this anyway?"

It was a large circular chamber; the ceiling was so high up that she could barely even see it through the dark lighting. The ominous atmosphere and flickering torches set all around the walls reminded her of a boss chamber in those videogames that her friends liked to play, "Th-this isn't where the Undead Mage stays is it? Ahaha..."

A face loomed out of the darkness, inches in front of her nose; the face was exquisitely, inhumanly beautiful, blonde hair whipping in the nonexistent wind like tentacles, "You called?"

"Keeee!"

**Play ALTIMA – Burst the Gravity**

She turned to run away only to find herself once again, nose to nose with a blank white mask, blue fires flickering in its empty eye sockets. She was struggling to swallow the massive lump that had formed in her throat when a massive sonic boom exploded right next to her shoulder, only then did she realize that she was standing right in the middle of a spar between two monsters.

Barely visible fists and kicks flashed in the air around her, punch met punch and kick met kick with loud sonic booms, and she was standing alone in a peaceful nexus, shaking like a leaf.

Anya immediately hit the floor in a sprawl and crawled away from the two monsters, only turning backwards when she realized that they weren't chasing her.

Evangline grunted as she caught an uppercut with her left hand, narrowly stopping it from hitting her chin, her own right hand was caught in the exact same position by the blonde. Grunting, the two of them froze, silently struggling against the other when the blonde start hitting her abdomen with rapid knee strikes. Before he could damage her anymore, she flicked her fingers, capturing next knee strike with invisible threads before sending an entire tailor shop's worth of wire at the blonde, only for him to block the manoeuvre with razor sharp chains that burst out of his back, beating back her wires and tangling them up.

Not giving up, she jerked on the wire that had already caught his knee, sending the man in the black trenchcoat soaring through the chamber into the wall with a loud explosion. Staggering out of the dust cloud, Naruto braced himself and grabbed the wire, repeating the same move, sending Evangeline into the wall beside him.

Anya watched in blue faced shock as the two monsters began some sort of weird competition, throwing the other around the chamber like a bizarre contest of strength when the Maga Nosferatu sent a bolt of ice magic through the thread, freezing the masked man's arm. Without hesitation, he whipped out a black sword that was as tall as himself and cut off his own arm before he could be fully frozen. Blood splashed out of the stump before a red aura surrounded him and a new arm exploded out of the stump. Flexing it a few times, the black coated man wasted no more time in charging back into the fight, one black sword splitting into two smaller ones.

"If you want a sword fight, that's what you'll get!" the blonde woman roared back, almost happily as two blades faded into existence in her outstretched palms, "_Ensis Exsequens!"_

Deep blue blade made of pure cold energy sparked against cold alloy as the two began hacking away with each other, somehow making it look elegant despite the pure ferocity they were showing. Evangeline weaved through the flashing blades before thrusting the one in her left hand at his abdomen, causing him to parry the attack and riposte with one of his own, only to realize that his opponent had ducked into a low spinning crouch, her free blade whipping through the air to cut him off at the knees. Chains exploded out of his back again, anchoring themselves to the ceiling before pulling him out of the way just in time to avoid a painful dismemberment, without missing a beat, he threw the blade in his hands at the crouched woman, only for her leap away from the attack.

Skidding backwards, she widened her eyes to see the blades had somehow turned in mid air and were following her around the chamber. Dodging another near decapitation, she glanced upwards at where the blonde was hanging when she understood how he was doing it. He was using his chains like a pair of powerful, heavy whips with his blades attached to the ends. She leapt upwards to avoid another chained blade before beginning to twist and turn to avoid the multiplying blades.

A quick look told her that there was now 6 chain blades flashing around the chamber in a complicated manoeuvre, but only two were of any real danger since he was controlling them manually, the rest were all attached to his back.

"_Crystallitatio Tellustris_!" Spires of ragged ice exploded out of the ground in a mockery of a frozen forest, freezing all his chains and blades mid attack. The blonde immediately touched the second card shaped bandolier that Anya only just realized was strapped to his left shoulder, three card shaped containers hugging his left shoulder in a vertical row. His trenchcoat turned dark blue with a shouted "**Abeat!"** and a large rifle appeared in his hands that he used to being volleying shots at the approaching vampire. Evangeline charged through the ineffective storm of bullets with a vicious grin even as she leapt up to claw at the hanging blonde.

"**Vindice Deux, aim for the stars and strike them down."** A quietly intoned chant caused the rifle to briefly glow, before elongating into a massive canon that seemed to be made of dark alloy, the barrel of the rifle already powerfully humming with a sphere of roiling red energy.

Evangeline only had time to widen her eyes before she was blasted straight out of the air, mid leap. A titanic beam of red energy blasted a huge crater in the ground; the man in the blue coat himself was sent flying into the air from the backlash of his weapon, crashing to the ground on the other side of the chamber in a crumpled heap.

Shakily he got up, **"Hehe, it's my win, Eva-chan."**

"Not if I can help it brother." A clawed hand burst out of his chest, sending blood and bone splattering all over the chamber, a grinning Evangeline appearing behind the masked man.

The masked man coughed up blood before gripping the hand to stop Eva from moving away, "**Tsk. Draw then."**

"Draw?"

A huge light green orb that screeched like a furious gale force wind and surrounded with a four pointed shuriken made of energy slammed into both of them from behind before exploding with a violent force, the shock wave sending everyone watching tumbling away.

"Ne-ne-negi? Why is _The Black Paladin_ here?" a shaky, high pitched voice reverberated in the conversation.

Negi who was crouched down in front of her with a fully powered water shield up absorbing the brunt of the shock wave, grunted in reply, "What do you mean? Wasn't it obvious? He was sparring with Evangeline-sensei. We usually don't watch them fight because well..." He looked around the destroyed chamber sheepishly, "More often than not, we get blown up along with them. This is already pretty toned down. Usually we have to rebuild this whole section of the castle if they go all out." He observed flatly.

"That's not what I'm asking! I'm asking why someone like _Him_ was in Mahora!?" she hissed at him.

"What are you talking about?" A nonplussed Negi replied, "He came with us to the beach, of course he would come back with us isn't it?"

"Huh?"

Negi gave her an exasperated look, "He's Naruto-nii san. Tall, blonde, scarred cheek, overly protective of a small red haired fox girl? You even said hello to him remember? Well, you said **a lot** more than hello... but eh."

"Naruto? That blonde, **goofy **idiot that acted like a stupidly doting father? That was **him?!" **Anya replied in a faint voice, "He is Evangeline, the _Maga Nosferatu_'s BROTHER?! Actually why didn't you say anything about it in your letter!?" a rather incredulous and disbelieving Anya screeched hysterically.

"Technically they're not blood siblings. Dad adopted her as well." Negi said sheepishly, "besides I wanted to introduce him to Nekane-onee chan as a surprise. Didn't really expect you to show up so soon."

"Oh..." A faint memory appeared in Anya's mind and she paled even further, her expression now had the consistency and colour of week old porridge, "I called him an idiot..." she muttered faintly, "I insulted _The Black Paladin_ to his face... ah." Her jaw slackened, her eyes rolled up into her head. A line of drool began leaking from the side of her open mouth.

"Anya?** Anya**!?" Negi frantically waved one hand in front of his childhood friend's bluish greenish face, "Wow. This is the first time I've actually seen anyone faint while standing up." He commented with amusement.

******Broken Faith******

A young woman with narrow eyes smirked at a shogi board and instantly countered her opponents move with a white piece before turning the aforementioned smirk upon the sweating blonde whose usual smile had dissipated like fog on a sunny morning, "It's your move now, Naruto-dono. Don't forget, you owe me a new jutsu if I win."

Naruto looked up with chagrin, "But you **ALWAYS** win, I've taught you almost every skill I have that's under B-rank already!"

"I guess it's time for you to start paying me with the A-ranks then." Kaede grinned smugly, "I'm looking forward to the solid clone technique that you have."

"Don't you have a solid clone technique yourself? What do you want mine for?"

"Mine can't talk or think like yours can." She pointed out, "Their just more solid."

"That's because you are using pure KI for them, you need real chakra for mine. The infusion of mental energy gives them a certain level of independence and personality." The blonde replied easily.

"Thank you for the free tip." The blonde chagrined expression comically worsened, "Now you get to teach me another A-rank skill. Sure is a shame for such a high level ninja like you to keep losing so badly in a simple game like this isn't it?" Kaede replied with a victorious grin.

"You could always just ask to apprentice under me instead of taking this stupidly roundabout route." Naruto muttered in a disgruntled manner.

"I... never thought of just doing that..." Kaede admitted sheepishly as she checkmated the blonde with another black piece.

"Nii-san, we're ready to go." A young red haired boy walked into the castle's luxurious hall where most of the Negima club members were gathered, "I managed to calm her down." At the blonde's sceptical look, he continued, "Somewhat. At least she isn't blubbering every time I mention your name anymore." Negi finished with a glare at the chuckling blonde for good measure, "I agreed with that first plan because she deserved a little of it, but don't be so mean to her from now on, alright?"

"Okay, okay," Naruto replied with a surrendering wave and a good natured grin, "Yosh! Ayaka we can pick up the rest of 3-A, then we're good to go."

"TO WALES~" everyone in the room simultaneously cheered and began leaving the room in droves.

"Wooohoo! This is the first time I'm going overseas!"

"Isn't that right?! I can't believe that we're actually going to take a plane there!"

'We're really bringing them as well?" Negi quietly asked his older brother.

"Do you really want to come back to a class full of angry 15 year old girls after the trip? Besides, it's not like we're bringing them to Mundus Magicus." was the carefree reply, "Not to mention, I KNOW a certain shotacon vampire told them and a dark skinned priestess sold them the information about us going to London. You can damn near bet that if we don't bring them there, they're just going to find some other way to do it, and then get completely and utterly lost in London. This way, we keep everyone where we can see them, in one organized group."

"Good point." He replied with a sweat drop, "It's just... I can't help but feel worried everything might go wrong."

"Meh, it's just a vacation trip to find Dad. What can go wrong?"

Negi peered up at the taller male and nodded reluctantly, "I guess."

As Naruto watched the youth leave the hall, he glanced aside at the very end, where another door was embedded into the walls, leading deeper into the castle, "Did you add the charms that I requested?"

A shoe came flying out of the crack in the door, "Who the heck is a Shotacon!?"

Naruto side stepped the flying projectile with an easy chuckle, "So? Have you?"

"Of course, it was easy for me. All of them have emergency forced teleportation charms enchanted into them, keyed to the coordinates you were given by Theodora. As long as someone gives the order, they will forcefully activate and send everyone to her doorstep without exception. They can wait there for you to show up." A cool voice replied from the vampire leaning on the other side of the door, "Chachamaru knows the code as well, so they will be fine as long as she keeps her own badge. That aside, why didn't you just tell him that you were worried too?"

"No reason to make that idiot worry pointlessly until I actually have some solid proof about whatever is going on down there." Naruto pointed out casually, "It's too much of a hassle making them cancel a huge project like this for some unfounded concern of mine. At best, there's just going to be few idiots that hold a grudge on Negi because of his parents. Nothing he and the rest of 3-A can't handle."

"Fair enough."

"Thanks for the help sis. I'll see you when I get back then?"

"Just don't die... brother. I'm..._ tired _of seeing people connected to me die so early." Evangeline admitted in a strangely emotional tone.

"I won't. Promise of a lifetime."

******Broken Faith******

Stepping out of the cabin, the blonde stretched, noticing that everyone else was already gone, presumably already boarding the bus that would take all of them to the airport where the private plane that Ayaka had so graciously allowed them to use was waiting.

"When are you and everybody else coming back then?" a calm, motherly voice asked.

"Probably in a week or so." Naruto replied without hesitation, already sensing her presence there the moment he left the cabin, "How did you know we were leaving though?"

"Ayaka has told me some bits and pieces," She smiled threateningly, "Mana was very forward about it as well, Fufufu... I was quite disappointed that you didn't come and at least talk to me about it though. Especially since the children at the orphanage are always waiting for Naruto-jii san to come back and play with them."

Naruto gave the tall auburn haired girl an apologetic smile, "Sorry. I've been really busy lately. I keep forgetting to come over and have a nice talk over tea. By the way, you have a really bad habit of manipulating every one of us like some omnipotent match maker."

Chizuru grinned, "Arara, can you blame me? Ayaka has been smiling so radiantly nowadays. Blackma- I mean politely asking Christina-baa chan to take a 6 month _vacation_ to Bratislava was so worth it." She touched one hand to her cheek in a ladylike manner, "Understand this though, if you make Ayaka sad, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask some of my friends to cut you up into pieces before burying each piece in a different continent."

Naruto gave her and her dark frigid aura a dry glance, "Oi, oi... don't say something so evil and threatening with such a noble, motherly smile. The children will be scared if they see you like that."

"Fufufufu... I don't think it was evil at all. I was just politely stating a fact."

"Tsk," Naruto gave the beautiful girl a wave, "I'll see you when I come back."

"Hmph. I'll hold that raincheck for an afternoon tea to you."

"Osu." He gave her one last wave over his shoulders, with a heavy bag slung over the other before halting in his steps, "Eh?! Oi, aren't you coming along with us as well!? What the hell is with this tragedic good bye scene then!?"

"Fufufu. 3"

******Broken Faith******

**Play Yuna Ito – My Heart Will Go On**

It was a hill with gently declining slopes, the soft green grass on the ground, scattered with brushes of Chinese milk vetches, moved like waves under the gently blowing wind. At the top of the hill was a lone and simple Ginko tree, it's thick branches wavering slightly under the wind's caresses, the view from under it was magnificent, a small but charming town lay at the bottom of the hill.

The air was fresh and sweet, a far cry from the one filled with thick acrylic smoke that Naruto and Asuna remembered from inside Negi's memories.

A beautiful blonde woman placidly walked up the hill towards them, a sedate grace filled her every move until she saw the wide eyed Negi waiting for her at the top of the hill.

"Nekane-onee chan..." Negi whispered breathlessly, his luggage bag slipping from his slack fingers.

The two of them began running at each other with crying eyes while the rest of 3-A watched from their spot under the tree.

Everyone could feel a warm, fluffy feeling in their chests as they watched the two cousins hugging tightly, Naruto started a little when he felt a timid synthetic hand slip into his, a tiny amount of regret in her pale green orbs.

Naruto simply smiled warmly to show that he did not care. Or rather, as long as everything worked out well, would no longer be a problem, though he had not told her yet because he didn't want to get her hopes up needlessly.

At the bottom of the hill, Nekane and Negi separated and began to talk animatedly before the smaller boy dragged the tall blonde over to where everyone was waiting, "Nee-chan, this is Naruto-nii san, Asuna, Akako, Ayaka, Chachamaru," one by one he personally introduced everyone under the tree as his students with a bright and heartfelt smile on his face.

The statuesque woman, whose beauty and grace matched even the blushing Ayaka's, bowed politely, "Thank you so much, for looking after Negi while he was teaching. How can I ever thank you?"

Naruto placed a hand on the crying boy's head, "There's nothing to thank us for. He took care of everyone here equally well." He have a wry half grin when Akako's tummy began to growl loudly, much to the small girl's embarrassment, "Though... I guess dinner wouldn't be a bad idea."

Akako hid her face in her father's trousers, eliciting a bunch of croons from the girls overcome by her adorableness, even her small fox ears lay flat onto of her head and her tail drooped in a vision so sweet and cute it almost gave everyone watching a heart attack.

"Huhuhuhu... " Nekane knelt beside the blushing fox girl and gathered her up into an warm embrace, "Akako-san is so cute..." she turned back to the tall blonde man with a warm smile, "Of course, dinner is already prepared; McGuiness-san is also already waiting for us to start at my home."

"McGuiness-san?" Yuuna echoed disbelivingly, "What is she doing here?"

"Oh you know her?" Naruto inquired curiously.

"I've met her once." The brown haired girl admitted grudgingly, "Why? Are you here to meet her?"

"In a way." Naruto replied warily, knowing that Yuuna was not one of the girls that knew about magic, "You could think of her as a middle man between me and my client. That's why I'll be leaving here about an hour or two before the rest of you do."

"Client?" Makie pouted at him, "You're not staying with us?"

Smirking he ruffled her hair, "I'll be here until a few hours before dawn. It's just a side job anyway; so I'll meet up with you guys after it's done. Now come on, it's time for dinner."

"Hurray~"

Naruto sweat dropped at how easily the fickle girls switched gears at the mere thought of food.

******Broken Faith******

Negi silently watched the whole group of rambunctious 15 year old girls partying in the Springfield home, sitting in between Ayaka and Asuna. On another couch, the tall blonde man had a bouncing little girl on his lap who he was feeding while Chachamaru sipped a cup of tea beside him. Around them, various members of the Negima club sat, contemplating the rather haunting mood, despite the party that was going on barely 3 feet away from them.

He glanced aside to where his brother was apparently watching him with a half grin.

The blonde gave him a nod of the head and a thumbs up.

"Nii-san, guys. Come on, I want to show you something." He quietly got up, and their small group left without letting the rest of the partying 3-A know. Konoka, Nodoka, Yue, Setsuna, Chisame, Kaede, Ku Fei and Makie followed without debate.

Outside, Negi took a dep breath of the familiar, refreshing air, "Come on. I want to show everyone something.

The majestically huge building was built underneath the shadow of another hill, overshadowed by a huge oak tree. The first room they came across was the huge, beautifully aged reception hall, the edges where wall met ceiling were decorated with stained glass that allowed faintly tinted sunlight from the setting sun to stream through.

"This is where everything started for me. This is the where I studied... where I graduated. The place where I started my journey to Mahora. There were a lot of difficulties, it was really hard to adapt, I wasn't used to the food and temperature. I was really **REALLY **scared of everyone in 3-A at first. They all seemed so much older and stubborn and strong."

He spun around to face the group standing behind him, "But then Asuna helped me, helped me fight, helped me keep my secret. I wasn't alone anymore, and then Nodoka-san, Yue-san, Konoka-san, Chisame-san, Chamo, Ayaka-san. Then Nii-san, Akako and Chachmaru also came into my life." He bowed deeply, eyes watering slightly, "I don't regret any of it. I don't regret it anymore. I'm happy about everything I've done so far. Thank you for coming this far with me, for trying so hard for a foreign, newcomer teacher."

All of them looked at each other, reluctant to say anything at his display of heartfelt gratitude.

"Idiot. What are you thanking us for something that doesn't need to be thanked?" a fist hit his head with enough to power to send the boy to the floor with spirals in his eyes, "Nii-Nii san!?"

"Idiot." Asuna whacked him as well, wearing a glowing blush on her face. Behind him, every girl was lined up, cracking their knuckles

"Wai-wait!? All of you are going to HIT ME?!

"Negi-jii san bakaaa!"

Negi's eyes nearly popped out, "**Akako?!** **No knives**! I'll really die!"

Akako pouted and began hiding all her nicely sharpened butter knives back into the folds of her cute kimono.

"Uuu... all of you are so mean..." Negi crouched on the ground nursing the many bumps decorating his skull.

"It's your own fault isn't it? Saying something so embarrassing all of a sudden." Asuna murmured quietly, "Besides, we wanted to help. We already know you are grateful, you didn't have to thank us like that."

"Hahaha... I guess. Anyway the reason I'm saying this now... is because," He gave a watching Nekane a determined look, "I want to go to Mundus Magicus. To find Otou-san."

The blonde girl paled noticeably, "What? Yo-you can't..."

"I'm going Nekane-onee chan. I have to go but I want your blessings first."

Nekane looked down, her long bangs hiding her eyes, "That's right isn't it... but how will you get there? It's not easy to get permission to go through the Magic World's Gate you know..."

"That's..."

"That's why I'm being allowed to help." A low voice that sounded like the clashing of rocks echoed in the empty hall.

"Headmaster!"

A grinning man with a long beard and tanned skin stepped out of the shadow.

As Negi and the rest began to crowd around the elderly man Nekane stepped up beside the silent blonde man, "It looks like I have to thank you for _Nii-san_. Negi has grown a lot stronger and able to deal with pressure ever since he left here."

The blonde arched an eyebrow at the way she addressed him, prompting her to smile mischievously, rolling his eyes; he spoke quietly, "I didn't do anything. With or without my help, he would have reached this point sooner or later. It's just in him."

"Perhaps. But he seems much more confident in himself than I expected. Especially since its only been 6 months since he left. Much has changed." The blonde girl lifted one hand to her mouth and giggled sadly, "Where has that cute little boy that worked so hard to even cook an omelette gone?"

"He grew up." Naruto answered easily, "Time passes and people change, even you."

"That's somehow really sad..."

"Then its lucky that not everything changes. No matter how much time passes, you will always be Negi's kind and lovely onee-chan isn't it?"

"Oh my, you're such a charmer, huhuhu, if only I were 5 years younger."

A cold, malevolent aura suddenly appeared behind him, "Naruto? Can we talk to you for a moment?"

Naruto sighed gloomily, "There's three really pissed off women behind me isn't it?"

"Huhuhu. Three and a half actually, Akako-san is so cute even when she's trying to look angry..."

"Yeah well, you're not the one that has to sleep with someone with enough pointy stuff hidden in her pyjamas to start a blacksmith."

******Broken Faith******

Donnet arched an eyebrow at the blonde man who was slowly walking down the stairs, "You look like a truck ran over you."

Naruto rubbed the multiple of bruises and cuts on his face, "A rather apt description." He answered flatly.

The blonde woman chuckled and set down her cup of coffee, "Well then, are you ready to go, or do you need to recuperate some more?"

Sighing, the shinobi slung his heavy bag onto his shoulders with a tired grin, "I'm fine. Can't afford to miss this one can I?"

"Not really." The sharply dressed blonde woman admitted, "Usually the portal is opened at set intervals. It's only because of Theodora-sama that we have a special porting just for you."

"Understood, let's go then. I don't wanna miss it."

The two of them silently climbed through the dark mist in an uncomfortable silence, a slight red tint of the rising sun was all the light that they had to show the way, "The portal is set a ways behind the local Magic Academy and surrounded by anti-normal charm to keep non magic users away from it..."

Naruto listened to the blonde woman's seemingly memorized commentary with only half an ear as he concentrated on trudging through the dewed grass and rocky ground until a circle of rock slabs slowly appeared out of the misty darkness.

"We're here. Just wait for a moment while I make the preparations for your transfer." A glowing array appeared under her palm and she began typing something into it. Half a glance towards the glowing circle told the blonde man standing beside her that it was a complex catalyst array that allowed her to manually open the portal from this side.

A huge thrum slowly began to pick up around them as each rock slab started glowing brighter and brighter with a white light.

"Credentials and documents have been confirmed. Naruto Namikaze is ready for teleportation. Have a good trip, Namikaze-san."

"You're not coming?" the blonde inquired with a tilt of the head.

"No, I'm sorry; I have to stay on this side to open it for the later group. I'll be sure to keep in touch with you." Donnet replied with an apologetic smile and a bow.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto glanced aside to where the sun was just only begin to peek up over the hillside and he stepped forward into the circle of light, into a new world.

He briefly experienced a discomforting weightless sensation before gravity regained its grip on him, sending his booted feet into contact with the hard marble floor. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing within an identical replica of the stone slabs that he had left behind in Mundus Vertus, only it's surrounding looked completely and utterly different. He found himself in some sort of futuristic port with an open view of the sky, where he could see small black shapes floating around lethargically in the rising sun.

"Well, I'm here. Wonder who was supposed to greet m-"

An intense pain ripped through his abdomen and limbs, sending the blonde screaming to his knees, at the same time, he could feel his toes begin to petrify, "Well... this is going to suck." He chuckled to himself.

Whipping out one hand, he sent a kunai whistling towards a small red circle that was obviously the Magical World's version of an emergency alarm judging by the large red WARNING emblazoned above it.

"TERRORISTS!" he roared loudly.

All around him, the bustling tourists and officers seemed to freeze momentarily before resuming with the volume turned up to maximum, mingling with the loud clanging alarms, as the mass of flesh struggled to escape the port.

"You don't seem surprised. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were expecting this." A calm monotone noted.

"You don't grow up in a village filled with skilled assassins or go through a war where almost everything with a mind is trying to kill you without learning a few things." Naruto commented casually even as he propped his stiffening body on a stone slab with some difficulty.

"I see..." the youth that Naruto recognized as Fate stepped out from behind a stone slab, "I do apologize for the rudeness but it seems that my employer has determined that we must kill you at all costs. I do not understand why he has such a fixation on you when he has insisted that we refrain from using excessive force thus far."

"There's no need to tell a dead man anything Tertium." Another individual, looking as if he was an older twin stepped out from the shadows as he chided the blank faced Fate.

"My apologies, Secundum. I saw no point in hiding anything from a dying man."

"Oi, oi. I'm right here. Besides," Naruto flexed his arms, shattering the rock covering his skin and slowly got up with a malicious smile that he stole straight from Evangeline as he dusted the remaining dust away, "Who said I was dying? Though, this constant pain is getting rather annoying, would you mind turning it off?"

The strange Fate clone, Secundum, gave him a rather disturbing grin, "You can ignore pain of such magnitude? This trap was designed to cripple even dragons and yet you are simply shrugging it off. Perhaps you are someone worth playing with after all... I am-"

The blonde cut him off, "Don't bother introducing yourself. I don't need to know. And I did say that I lived through a war. Learning how to ignore this much pain is something of a given... by the way... would you stop looking at me like that? It's kinda creepy and I **REALLY** don't swing that way..."

Behind a growling Secundum, six figures shrouded in shadows stepped forward, the tallest of which swished his hand to disperse the shadows hiding all of him.

"Ah, so that's how all of you hid from my senses. You were hiding in the shadows." Naruto observed easily even as he slipped one hand under his shirt to touch his Pactio belt, his eyes darting around the port to find a quick escape route, "That being said, I have no quarrel with any of you. Would you mind letting me go since there's no reason for us to fight?"

A deep bass voice from the tallest man at the very back of the group, swathed in black robes that had white ornaments and a similarly white mask replied, "An insect has no quarrel with a boot. You are simply in our way and we will have to step on you."

"That... doesn't really make sense since you had to go out of your way to trap this whole damn place and wait to gang up on me." Naruto pointed out with a pained smile as storm clouds began to gather above them.

Instead of replying, the tallest one, who appeared to be the semi-leader, waved his hand, sending all the Fate lookalikes charging at him with varying degrees of amusement and enjoyment on their faces. The first to reach him however, was not a Fate lookalike, but rather a skimpily dressed and an insanely grinning Tsukuyomi. Blade sparked against kunai as Naruto caught her first slash with two kunai, locking the nodachi in place. Drool slobbered down her chin, "I have been waiting sooo long to fi-Gehoh!"

Naruto slammed his knee into her gut, mostly because he really didn't want to let her finish her sentence, folding her in half before wrenched the girl to his left, allowing her body to take a burst of water to the back before grasping her legs and swinging her around like a bat, slamming the screaming girl into another Fate lookalike that was creeping up behind him before kicking her in the face, sending her flying into the robed man furthest away from him.

The man simply batted her away with a fist made of shadow that was as large as himself.

As the insane swordswoman flew away, Naruto couldn't resist himself even as he leaped away from a manically laughing Secundum, "That's the third time that she has fought me. You'd really think that she would learn to fight with her hands after being blown away the first two times."

He settled into a defensive stance and began parrying as many attacks as he could while looking around for an escape while the remaining members began to pepper him with coordinated bursts of magic and melee attacks. Ducking under a blast of lightning, Naruto surged forward to stomp on the lightning user's foot before slamming the heel of his palm into his chin and finishing it off with a elbow to the chest before back flipping over a stone sword onto a handstand and wrapping his knees around the fire user's head, Naruto flipped upright again, bringing his prey forwards and crushing his head into the ground with his knees.

"This is not right Tertium. His abilities far surpass the records that you brought us, this is a failure." He heard the water user mutter angrily as he acrobatically dodged a series of staggered high pressure water blasts when a massive fist of shadow slammed into his back, crushing the blonde into a stone slab, "Guhah!"

"Get him now, while he is immob-Hnn?!"

The fist made of shadow that was pinning the blonde to the stone slab was slowly being pushed back by a grunting blonde with red mascara around his eyes, "What is with his ridiculous strength?"

"Guuuuargh!" the blonde pulled upwards and began repeatedly slamming the robed man on the other end of the fist into the ground until the man finally released his spell, sending him soaring into the ceiling.

A pale green orb that absolutely screeched with power materialized in the palm of one hand, it grew bigger and bigger in size until it was the size of a small house. Surging forwards, the blonde slung it at the soaring man in the robes even as he dodged another blast of water.

"Hargh!" a huge fist of shadow shot out of the man's chest and grabbed the screeching orb and slowly began to crush it, similarly, the _Rasenshuriken _began to grind away at the fist until it exploded in a massive orb of light that disintegrated the arm and the tops of two stone slabs. Naruto leapt over Fate and began running towards the exit with brief spurts of speed when a seventh figure wielding some sort of staff with an orb on it faded into existence above the exit.

The sheer power flowing from the newcomer was enough to send a shiver down Naruto's back, his heart skipped a beat, "Looks like I can't keep playing anymore." He touched the first card on the belt strapped to his shoulder, "_Adeat_."

Brown leather jacket and white shirt was replaced by a black coat that flared out behind him, scarred cheeks was encased in a blank white mask and a gleaming great sword materialized in his hands, "**Nihil et Regnum**. E**ven if all of Heaven's hosts stands in my way, the blade of my conviction shall pierce them. This is my Justice."**

Without any pomp or ceremony, the gleaming blade in his hands morphed into its segmented form and the blonde started glowing with a golden aura and black writing running down his front.

He flashed forward with such speed that he took even the shadow user by surprise, immediately burying the blade deep inside the newcomer's chest with unmatched ferocity.

Golden cloaked clones appeared all around the small platform; each wielding a similar blade attached to a chain and began advancing on the Fate lookalikes and the shadow user.

_What is your justice?_

It wasn't a voice, or not a conventional one. It was a question in a form of a thought that was placed inside his mind, jarring the blonde badly that the newcomer had managed to get through his mental defences with such ease.

"What?" Naruto replied, struggling to keep his blade buried in the newcomer's chest when he swung the weird staff at him. The blonde immediately tensed his body and tried to leap off when his body froze without reason, allowing the newcomer to smash his face with the orb on the end.

_What is your Justice?_

A bleeding from the nose Naruto struggled to get up, feeling a little wobbly and confused about why his body was not responding properly, "There's no Justice here. I'm just trying to survive an attack from fools who attacked me without provocation."

A blade attached to a chain shot out to stab deep into the fire user's chest, before the original blonde used his body like a weight at the end of a chain to slam the floating newcomer. The screaming fire user simply phased through the cloaked man like he wasn't material.

Naruto blinked and promptly disappeared, heading straight for the exit instead of fighting when a dome of impenetrable shadows slammed itself down, trapping all of them on the platform.

_Your death will benefit the World._

"I am NOT dying for some faceless freak, especially not since I promised to go back." Naruto grunted as he swiped away simultaneous attacks from all the other attackers and launched a spread of Rasenshurikens that devoured the ground in front of him, before surging forwards, a spear made of pure crackling lightning poised to give the shadow user a new nose.

_What if I told you I could bring your wife back from the Dead?_

Naruto froze in almost breathless expectation, "What?"

He was promptly stabbed from six different directions.

******Broken Faith******

Negi yawned widely even as he began trudging up the hill, Chachamaru who was carrying a still sleeping Akako in her arms patted him on the shoulder gently, "Heheh, thanks Chachamaru. Did Naruto-nii san leave already?"

The gynoid nodded stoically, "He left exactly 3 hours before we did. He should already be in Hellas right now."

"Did he mention what was his mission entailed?" Negi chatted quietly with the gynoid as the rest of the classes separated into groups and began milling around the stone slabs, waiting for the sharp eyed blonde woman to finish preparing the portal. Off to one side, he could see Yue-san taking an almost professorial pose and lecturing a sheepish Nodoka-san. Asuna was currently missing, though he suspected that she was talking with Ayaka who had followed them this far for one last farewell. Setsuna, Konoka, Ku Fei and Kaede were talking quietly in one corner of the masonry.

"I was only made aware that it was an escort mission. Any further information was considered a violation of his client's privacy."

"Heeh... I kinda wish I could go on missions with nii-san. They sound like a good way to get some good combat experience.

Off to the side, Makie was desperately trying to pull Yuuna, the three cheerleaders and the Narutaki twins away from the teleportation site, "C'mon guys. This isn't right, what if we get into trouble, and this looks really bad."

"Eehh... if you want to go home then go ahead, baby-Makie." The basketball player teased the smaller girl, "While the rest of us adults go on and charm Negi-kun while you stay at home safely."

'Kuh... this is bad, if they find out about magic, Negi-sensei and Naruto-sensei is going to be in trouble... I have to get them out of here!' Makie thought grimly. Just then, a bright flash lit the sky and a white beam pierced the blood red sky above them, along with a massive array that slowly revolved around the pillar of light.

'Ah... they're going to find out anyway now...' Makie comically began crying as the ground beneath them began glowing and a weightless sensation spread out all over them, resigning herself to at least be the guardians for her wayward classmates no matter what happened.

"Negi-sensei. It's time." Chachamaru quietly spoke as she observed the spiralling layers of array that lit up the sky with a myriad of colours.

Negi glanced around at his too cheerful students, "It's almost as if we're going on a picnic, not to another world. They're not intimidated at all."

"Of course. We're your students aren't we, Negi-sensei?"

"Technically you're my sister in law."

"That too."

The white light slowly spread out, and got brighter and brighter until even squinting was painful. Without a choice, everyone shut their eyes and waited for the weird sensation to end.

The sound of something clattering caused Negi to open his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a familiar blonde, torn, ragged and bleeding, pinned to a stone stab with spears piercing each limb. His eyes were closed and bleeding, his blonde hair was matted with copious amounts of blood, so much so that he almost looked like a natural red head.

"**Aa...AHHHH!"**

He heard McGuiness screaming as she looked around, whatever she had been expecting had been replaced by a burning destroyed wreck. Huge amounts of concrete and remnants of a once majestic airport was scattered all around them but Negi only had eyes for the blonde stabbed into a stone slab like some weird perversion of a holy idol, blood raining down from his torn body.

He heard the sound of clothe rustling as a completely berserk Asuna rushed forward, dull eyes glinting in the fire light.

"Papa?"

Negi snapped and disregarding everything else, charged forwards. He was only vaguely aware of Kaede and Setsuna coordinating an attack to rescue the bleeding blonde but his only target was the only one he recognized amongst the people gathered beneath the blonde, Fate Averruncus.

"**FAAATEEEEE!" **He brought down his staff like a hammer, the wooded end splintering slightly under the pressure of his magic.

The silver haired boy caught the staff with one hand, but the force of a berserk Negi was still enough to send him to his knees with a loud grunt, and that was before a screaming Negi slammed a fistful of lightning straight through his stomach with his free hand. Negi began flailing wildly at the downed boy, roaring angrily. Nothing but the look of pain as Fate buckled under his fist mattered to the child teacher.

"Konoka! KONOKA-OJOU SAMA! We need your HELP!" Setsuna urgently shook the brown haired girl's shoulders, blood soaking through the hem of her cloak.

"Hu-huh!?" when Setsuna gestured at the bleeding blonde lying at her feet, Konoka fell to her knees, "Th-this isn't real right?" she asked in a strangled tone as the elements and the sound of breaking bones raged all around her.

"It's **real** Ojou-sama, please! Lend us your strength; no lend Naruto-sensei your strength. He needs to be HEALED!" Setsuna urged the Konoe heiress while Kaede and Ku Fei fended off the white haired clones away from them long enough for Naruto to be healed.

"Ha-hai. Adeat!" Konoka called out her fans and began frantically waving them above the blonde's closed eyes, casting every healing and diagnosis spell she knew. Moments seemed to crawl by as they watched the crying girl shoot spell after spell of every colour at the unresponding blonde.

The brown haired girl slumped down lifelessly after a few minutes of futile casting, "It's no use..." she turned her teary eyes on her childhood friend.

"He has... no pulse."

The air seemed to freeze for an instant, then as if she had spoke aloud instead of in a whisper and everyone on the platform had heard her, and began to fight even more fiercely.

"Master. What should we do?" The shadow user reverently asked the man with the strange staff, "They have already seen us. The barrier keeping reinforcement out is falling as well."

The hooded man pondered the question silently, "There is no helping it. Regroup and finish them off. It is a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things."

"Understo-ACK!" a ribbon wrapped itself around his head and yanked him into the ground.

"You killed .Kill..Kill...Kill...Kill..." A small pink haired girl muttered in a monotone, the indestructible ribbons tightened themselves around him and began pulling his limbs apart, inch by inch.

Dynamis flexed his arms, only the ribbons refused to yield as expected, instead they became even tighter, cutting off his air supply even further. How was such a girl so strong? growling out loud, he commanded his shadows to rip the ribbons away.

"You insolent human!" His shadows managed freed himself from the ribbon's embrace, though they still failed to break the ribbons themselves. Makie simply lashed her ribbons like whips, dull eyes filled with tears glaring at the masked man with hatred.

A small Akako, wearing a blank expression slowly walked out of Chachamaru's lifeless hands and toddled over to the prone blonde. She tapped his cheek with one small hand; it wasn't even large enough to cover his whole cheek, "Papa?"

Her throat wobbled, "Papa? Playing?"

She pinched his cheek lightly, the way he always did when he wanted to tease her, "Papa? Wake up?" tears began welling up in her ruby eyes as the small child wavered on her feet. the blood seeping into her small boots.

Warm synthetic arms circled the crying kitsune, "I-I'm sorry Akako... I promised Papa, you'd come first. **Uzumaki**!"

As soon as the shaking Gynoid uttered the password, translucent orbs of power immediately expanded around everyone with a badge and those around them, protecting them from further harm. The orbs began floating into the air, Negi and Asuna in particular began clawing at the orbs, trying to get out to the limp and lifeless blonde lying in the dirt, his own badge was cracked and damaged beyond functioning.

"They're getting away! Stop them!"

A beam made of the combined might of the entire Cosmo Entelechia ripped out with a roar, devouring everything in the way.

"**Aequilibrium et Stella. Stars that watch, that shepherd, that stand sentinel over us. Guide me."**

Nine glowing crystals cut through the air and formed a nine layered barrier in front of the defenseless bubble. Unstoppable attack hit unbreakable barrier with a deep ringing sound like a gong being viciously pounded and everyone stared stupidly at the glowing barrier standing strong against the ultimate class spell.

"**Nii-san!" **

"**NARUTO-SENSEI!"**

"**PAPA!"**

Vaguely, out of bloodied and fuzzy vision, the swaying man could see outstretched hands reaching for him from the bubbles, dull blue eyes looked up and smiled softly as he reached out to touch each hand in turn.

"I'll see you soon, guys." He gave Asuna a glance. He heard his barrier cracking behind him, "Sorry, but It looks like I can't keep that promise to you about not bearing the burden alone." he touched her forehead once, before pushing them away with all the remaining strength that he muster from his torn muscles and soft breeze.

The barrier cracked, before exploding with a huge mushroom cloud, sending all the bubbles scattering uncontrollably through the sky.

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me from Hell**

"Did we do it?" the water user muttered curiously, trying to peer through the billowing smoke, her senses completely dampened by the amount of wild magic fizzling around the field.

The fire user punched the sky in happiness, "Hell yeah, we should do that more often! Nothing can stand against u-Urk!" a black blade split the dust cloud and embedded itself deep in his skull, the chain yanked his entire body into the dust cloud, the sheer brutality of the attack left the remaining members of Cosmo Entelechia gaping.

"**Remember how I said you didn't have to introduce yourself? I take it back." **A deep malevolent voice echoed around them through the smoke and flames,** "Your new name is Red... huh... wait. You bleed white stuff; White Stain One."**

"That asshole is ALIVE! Secundum, sc-GAK!" another blade snaked out of the dust cloud from behind him, with such speed that not even Dynamis managed to stop it. The blade sliced through Quartum's neck, leaving it hanging by barely an inch of sinew and skin before the chain wrap around his head and tightened. The head exploded under the sheer pressure. The last thing Sextum saw of Quartum, was his disbelieving eyes popping out of his head.

"**White Stain Two."**

The remaining members immediately gathered in a defensive circle around the Life Maker. Fate heard the sound of something shaking and when he looked beside him, he realized that Sextum was trembling. She looked down at her shaking hands with something that almost resembled curiosity, "Is this... fear?"

The sound of footsteps reached their ears and the smoke began clearing, Secundum grinned, darting forward out of formation with glee. He leapt towards the shadowy figure only to find a man clad in trenchcoat, one hand raised and motioning to his right side.

"Are you an idiot?! You expect me to fall for something like th-GYAH!" a massive orb of red boiling energy slammed into him from his left side, completely melting him into nothing but atoms within seconds, with all the heat of a dying sun.

"**Not my fault White Stain Three didn't want to believe me." **The man clad in a black trenchcoat that was dripping with blood, turning his deep red eyes at the calm Life Maker, he took one lurching step towards the Life Maker, **"You asked me about my Justice earlier."**

_I did._ Was the excruciatingly confident reply.

He took another step, blood splashing all around his feet.

"**I don't care if you hurt me. I don't even care if you try and kill me. Part of me even thinks I don't deserve to live when men far better and purer than me have not. But then you attack my family. You try to kill my brother. My wives. MY DAUGHTER." **His deep voice rumbled like a thunder crack. Under his trenchcoat, three cards began glowing a deep ruby red with bright gold outlines..

"**My Justice is protecting my family."**

The three cards shot out of his trenchcoat and hovered in front of him, **"Expergiscere, Deus ex Ira."**

The glowing orbs hit their peak and slammed into each other slowly expanding until the engulfed the masked man, a ringing like that of a crystal bell chimed throughout the enclosed dome. Both light and sounds abruptly disappeared as if they had been sucked into a void, leaving an empty arena in front of them.

_What? Where is he?_

A man in a grey trench coat with gold ornaments on each shoulder and a white scarf, faded into existence, directly in front of him, deep red eyes that burnt like fires glared at him, eye to eye, out of a gleaming metal mask that was topped with a half crown, its bottom half was jagged, like fangs.

One clawed fist lashed out before it was stopped by a barrier and the Life Maker immediately buckled and instinctively threw up his arms, reinforcing the barrier which had almsot completely failed with just one hit. The man in the cold silver mask, completely ignoring the fact that his first attack had failed began pounding away on the barrier, each hit slowly but surely cracking the glowing blue barrier despite The Life Maker's best efforts to keep him away.

_What are you waiting for? Kill him!_

Dynamis, jolted back into action by the Life Maker's command, dove at the masked blonde, and formed a large shadowy fist that was poised to swat the grey coated man away.

One malicious red eye glared at him disdainfully out of the corner of the mask, evaluating, dismissive, like he was nothing but a bug. And Dynamis found himself being surrounded by a whole swarm of buzzing black blades that materialized out of thin air, black sharpness gleamed in the dark. He barely had a second to form a shadow barrier around himself before the swords tried to impale him with extreme prejudice.

Naruto lurched forward when Fate managed to weave out of the network of floating blades and plunge a key shaped blade into his abdomen. The silver haired boy blinked as the blonde ignored him and continued to pound away at the shield, the only thing that stood between him and the Life Maker.

An almost frantic Sextum stabbed him in the back with her own Grand Master's Key.

He ignored it.

"What are you!? Why? WHY can't I rewrite you!?" she screeched, almost hysterically, stabbing him repeatedly without any visible effect save the splashing of his blood.

Dynamis stabbed him in the side with another, causing his structure to fizz and almost fade out for a moment before resolidifying with a dark, commanding growl.

The blonde ignored them and slammed his claws through a crack in the barrier, wedging it apart with another hungry growl.

_What stubbornness... to be hit with three Keys and still reject it. Humans truly have no limits._

The mask moved into a cruel grin, emphasized by the fangs that shaped its lips and began chuckling ominously, **"I have limits. I just don't accept them."** The following punch shattered the dimensional barrier and gave the Mage of Beginnings the beginnings of an absolutely beautiful black eye.

The clawed hands then grabbed the sides of his head and pulled the Life Maker's face into a vicious head butt that cracked the gleaming silver mask.

Stepping backwards, the black coated man finally staggered and toppled onto his back when his legs finally began to fade.

Lifting up one clawed hand he pointed at the Life Maker's "Let that black eye forever be a reminder to you. You may be a deity, the creator of Magicus Mundus, or God himself, but don't forget. **Even Gods can die**. Ku...Hahahaha!"

The masked man slowly faded away, laughing loudly.

Shakily, the hooded man took a step away from the no longer existing Naruto Namikaze and lifted one hand to gingerly touch his eye.

"_**That black eye looks like a work of art. I hope it hurts."**_ A cheerful voice reverberated in his own mind, causing him to whirl around in an undignified manner.

_Who are you?_

"_**Who am I? The owner of this body, who else?" **_the disembodied voice chuckled humorously.

_Impossible, I completely suppressed you. _

The remaining members watched as the Life Maker whirled around like a mad man, shouting at thin air.

"_**You did. Or at least you did until that young man landed a blow on you. One strong enough to shake your grip on me. It was pretty impressive by the way, you trapped this place to hell and back, ganged up on him like bees on honey and he still managed to kick your collective asses until you showed up. Then you killed him, and he STILL managed to kick your ass post mortem." **_He heard a deep chuckle in his mind, _**"It's only reasonable that I use the chance he gave me isn't it? Time to take get your hands of my arse, you fucking homo."**_

_Enough, I have no time for this!_

The voice in his head went silent but he could still feel the original owner of the body he inhabited fighting against his control.

_Dynamis, Regroup. We have to rest and heal our wounds._

"Understood." a panting Dynamis shakily stood up, even the sheer brutality of the silver masked man's attacks had unnerved him.

******Broken Faith******

**The End. Broken Faith is now Complete.**

**Expergiscere Deus ex Ira – Awaken, Raging God. **


	31. True Faith

**Broken Faith Sequel Teaser**

**True Faith **

**Disclaimer : I don't own anything. All source material belongs to their respective creator/author/artist. **

Alright, you guys have suffered enough. Lol.

**Soundtrack List**

**Two Steps From Hell – Immortal**

******True Faith******

**Play Two Steps from Hell – Immortal**

Nekane giggled quietly as she watched the three cheerleaders of 3-A sleepily troop into the room and head straight for the breakfast table, despite it being almost afternoon already.

Beside her, the elegant blonde woman, Yukihiro-san if she remembered it right, was sipping from a cup of tea beside her cousin, the equally beautiful and elegant Naba-san. Both of them rolled their eyes at their less composed classmates though Naba-san failed to suppress her own amused giggle.

"Is that all of us?" Ayaka inquired curiously, "Where is everybody else?"

"I'm not sure." Chizuru answered calmly, "I'll go and wake them up. It's almost noon and it's not polite to impose on Nekane-san's kindness for too long. She must have her own things to do."

"Oh my, I don't mind." Nekane smiled rather wistfully, "It gets rather lonely around here when Anya and Negi aren't around. I actually don't mind if you stay here for a day or so." Nekane said with a cheerful smile.

"It's still not polite to sleep so late. At the very least, we should help you around the house and cook lunch since these monkeys all eat so much." Ayaka pointed out with dignity.

Chizuru grinned slightly, "As strict as always, Aya-chan. But good point."

Ayaka pouted at her cousin, "I thought you promised not to call me that in front of other people." The auburn haired girl whimsically waved over her shoulder as she flounced up the stairs.

Moments later, the sounds of feet hurriedly tapping on the hardwood floor as Chizuru appeared at the bottom of the stairs, looking uncharacteristically worried and flustered, "They're not there, Yunna-san, Makie-san, they're all gone."

The three cheerleaders immediately shot upwards with a loud, "What!?" while Nekane covered her lips to hide a gasp.

Chizuru's eyes were drawn straight to the only person who had failed to react, or rather, was too busy to react.

Ayaka was intensely staring at the silver band on her hand, with another hand clutched to her chest as if in physical pain. Her tea cup which was carefully set down on a saucer plate had split in half, allowing steaming brown liquid to slowly pool over the table top, coming dangerously close to dripping on the her lap.

"Ayaka?"

******True Faith******

"Oi Oi Kitty, it's your turn." Konoe commented irritatedly, a shogi board sitting in between him and the vampire, slowly gathering dust.

The blonde girl snapped out of her thoughts and looked around in surprise, "Sorry." She muttered quietly, "I was lost in thought."

"For the past three hours." The Dean of Mahora pointed out dryly, "If you were so worried, why didn't you just go with them? It's not like you couldn't since he apparently broke the seal, I don't even know why you stay in Mahora anymore. It's not like you are required to."

"Who said I was worried about that idiot?" Evangeline spluttered loudly, "I-I was just thinking about my next move! And whether I stay here is my business or not isn't it!?"

"Which idiot might you be talking about? I don't remember mentioning anyone in particular." Konoemon teased the fuming vampire with a wide grin.

"Grrr!" She picked up a white piece and slammed in on the board in a random position, "There, you go! You happy?!"

"Gohohoho! My win!"

Evangeline blanched comically as she realized that she had allowed the old man to corner her, when she felt the small black wing brooch pinned to the front of her white dress start to heat up. The vampire paled and her hands limply dropped to her side, "So fast?" she gasped shakily.

Inhaling deeply, she looked at the concerned Konoe, "Old man, where's your pactio?"

"My... Pactio?" he asked uncertainly, wary of the way the vampire's pupils were dilated, almost like a feral animal barely holding herself back.

"The one you made with the blonde idiot! Pull it out, **hurry**!" She urged him impatiently, restraining herself from simply leaping across the board to attack the old man to make him move faster.

Shrugging, the old man pulled out the card from his inner pocket and inspected it curiously before flipping it over for the nearly vibrating vampire to check.

A blonde man with three scars on each cheek, standing in a relaxed pose with one hand resting on the barrel of his sniper rifle and the other holding a mask to his face that hiding half of his face although a confident smirk could be seen on what was visible of his face. The blonde seemed to smirk smugly back at her from the surface of the card. Beneath the blonde's feet lay a banner that prominently displayed the words _Astra Petas_ in bold, stylish font.

"He's alive." Evangeline let out an explosive breath of relief.

******True Faith******

Blue eyes slowly peeled back heavy eyelids, wincing slightly as a bright beam of sunlight hit his retina directly from the open sky light. They blinked slowly. The sapphire orbs eyes painstakingly panned around the room to understand where he was by swivelling around their sockets, simply because his neck was feeling incredibly stiff. So was his entire body for that matter.

Indifferently, they rolled back to the open skylight with one arm gradually lifted up to shield his visual organs from the bright glare of sunlight reflecting off the ceiling which seemed to be made of nothing but glass.

"Oh, you're awake." A cheerful voice interrupted his ruminations.

Sapphire eyes slowly rolled downwards and took in the newcomer's profile. She was a lightly tanned blonde, of above average height; and lean musculature that was not meant for prolonged fighting but allowed for a strong and enduring body, and... were those horns? Information like that slowly filtered into his consciousness. He was not even sure why he was thinking about something like kill points.

"Where... am... I?" He slowly croaked haggardly, his throat feeling as if someone had taken a hammer to it before pouring sand down his mouth, gratefully accepting the cup filled with crystal clear water, poured from a jug on his bedside.

"We found you unconscious in the castle's royal garden." The blonde woman chirped happily, "The princess allowed me to take care of you until you felt better."

"Prin-cess?" He tried to place the cup back on the table with shaking hands, achieving limited success when the glass landed with a loud crack.

"Princess Theodora?" Seeing his blank look, she tried again, "Third princess of the Hellas Empire?"

When her patient shook his head resolutely, the blonde woman sighed, "Well, let's try it another way, what's your name?"

The blonde man lying on the bed seemed to stare at her uncomprehendingly for a few seconds before he tilted his head and blinked slowly, "I... am not... sure."

******True Faith******

Let me be utterly frank with you, when I posted chapter 30, there was supposed to be a small note saying there was going to be a sequel. I forgot to add it in; because I was so effing sleepy (staying awake till 5a.m. does that to people). Imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning, and realized that over 60% of the received reviews were insults mixed with _DEMANDS_ for a sequel or just plain insults.

I'm pretty sure most of my readers already know that I don't take demands very well.

In other words, I decided to let everybody hang and not update with an author's note for the sequel.

I **was** going to let everyone hang even longer than this, but you can thank people like **Faraway-R** who actually noticed the crapton of hints I dropped (and a few I didn't even notice myself) despite the overall _'about to die'_ atmosphere I put in (intentionally, how was it? Did it make you feel like you were reading about someone walking to the gallows?) and pointed it out, or** Rialga** who confidently pointed out what he liked or didn't like about the chapter, and then calmly stated he was looking forward to the sequel. Now that?

That's faith.

Now let us go on to the reason I ended Broken Faith the way I did, there was two main reasons, for one, it was nearing 350k words and getting too bulky. Most people I know don't even bother to read them when it gets that long, so I decided on a fresh start. Second, how many of you even read or remember when I said _Broken Faith_ wasn't just a fancy title?

Feel free to guess what I mean by that.


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